Why Did You Come Back at All?
by leafs nation
Summary: Clem, Jane and AJ have made it back to Howe's Hardware. They've got plenty of food, walls to keep them relatively safe, and things are looking up for a change. But when another woman from Clem's past comes storming back in, will Clementine find it within herself to forgive this person?
1. Cold hearts and rainy days

"Leave. Now," I order the family, scowling at them and trying to look as threatening as possible without harming AJ at all. I feel really guilty for doing this sort of thing, but Jane and I don't know these people.

And by the way that this red-headed guy is reaching behind his back, I'm guessing that he's not the friendly sort.

"You sure you wanna do that, little girl?" he spits, glaring at me as if that'll change my mind. If anything, it just strengthens my resolve. "What if we decide to come back and take your place over anyways? What if we're dangerous?"

"Then I'll be waiting for you," I snarl, aiming my pistol directly at him as his son widens his eyes. "I'm not gonna tell you again! Get out of here before things get violent!"

His wife walks over and sadly tugs on her husband's arm. "Come on, Randy. Let's just go…" she murmurs, giving me the stink eye before slowly walking back towards her son.

I glower at the bespectacled man and silently dare him to take one more step towards us. As he sees that I'm dead serious, he shakes his head and starts to walk away with his family. The young boy turns one last time to see if I'll change my mind, but I will not be swayed – his puppy dog eyes won't work on me. Trust me, I used to use those on Lee all the time, and I know every trick in the book.

"I hope you know what you're doing, little girl!" Randy shouts back at us, and I don't turn away until they're almost completely out of sight.

Once they're gone, I put my pistol back in my pocket and look at Jane expectantly; all the while rocking AJ back and forth slowly.

"That couldn't have been easy," Jane comments, placing her hands on her hips, "but thanks for doing that, Clem."

"We can't trust anyone. Remember?" I mention in a deadpan voice, turning away from the gate and heading back into the staff room of Howe's.

"Umm… yeah," Jane grimaces, probably reminded of what happened last week with Kenny. I still haven't fully forgiven her for what she did, but she definitely proved her point. The Kenny I knew before he lost his family was gone. I was naïve enough to think at the ski lodge that he'd changed a little bit, and perhaps he did with Sarita to keep him occupied. But ever since I cut off her arm trying to save her… Kenny never looked at me the same way again. Our friendship had broken to the point of almost no repair, but at least he's with Katjaa and Duck now.

At least, that's what I told him anyways. I wanted him to feel better in his last moments.

"Let's go check out the greenhouses," Jane says, snapping me back to reality as she holds the door open for AJ and I. This little guy's one hell of a baby; hardly ever making a fuss when he's around me and cute as a button. I think that even Jane's started taking a liking to him a little bit, even if she won't admit it. But I've caught her smiling and making goofy faces with AJ on more than one occasion when she thought I wasn't looking.

We're not completely heartless, Jane and I, even though we just turned those people away. It's just that… we've had too many problems with big groups, especially when we don't know the people we're with. I'll do whatever it takes to keep all three of us alive, even if it means turning away people in need.

But sometimes I wonder what Lee would think if he'd seen what I've become… Would he be proud that I'm keeping us safe? Would he be pissed and disappointed that we've forced people out who need our help? Who knows, I suppose. Lee can't exactly say anything, seeing's how he's dead and all.

Ouch… that was a bit harsh there, Clem.

"What do you think happened to Tavia and them?" I ask inquisitively, opening the door to the greenhouse and basking in the smell of fresh plants. The two berry plants that Sarah and I were working on are still sitting on the table, although the fruit has most likely spoiled by this point.

"Maybe the walkers scared 'em off," she replies, shrugging her shoulders as she grazes her thumb over some weeds growing in one of the soil pots. "Clem… I think we just hit the jackpot here! If we grow some vegetables in here, plus all the canned stuff that we've got downstairs, we might not have to leave for at least a few months, if not more!"

"You really think that the food'll last that long?" I question, setting AJ down on a workbench as he tries to grab my hand. I indulge him for the time being, as he grabs my pinky finger and moves it back and forth as if it's one of his toys. "I mean, how much could they have stocked up here?"

"The only redeeming quality about Carver was that he was always well-supplied. They used to go on runs into Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte back when I was still with them. Have you ever been there?"

"No… I'm not from around here," I explain with a sigh, thinking about my parents and our house back in Georgia. I'd be dead if Lee hadn't come along to take me with him.

Sensing that I don't really want to go into details, Jane nods and continues searching around. That's one of the things that I like about Jane – she can practically always tell what I'm thinking, and can read my body language like an open book. She's certainly not the most comforting person around, but I've gotten used to not having people around like that. There's not a whole lot of room for softness out here when you're separately trying to survive.

"They've got seed packages over here," Jane remarks, holding up a few small packs while smirking slightly. "Which would you rather have? Tomatoes, eggplants or beans?"

"Eggplant?" I question with slight disgust, making a mock grossed-out face as Jane chuckles slightly.

"Yeah, not my number one pick either. Beans or tomatoes?"

"I've had enough beans to last a lifetime," I comment dryly, smiling down at AJ as he makes his famous cooing sounds that I'm told most babies make.

"Tomatoes it is then," Jane concludes, opening up the package and starting to plant them in one of the soil pots they've got lying about. "You know, when I think of surviving in the apocalypse, this is the last thing that comes to my mind of what we should be doing."

"Yet here we are," I say quietly, picking up Alvin Junior and walking over so we can observe her handiwork. "It's pretty nice though, don't you think?"

"I guess so. Better than freezing our asses off up north," she replies, digging her bare hands into the dirt and dumping the package of seeds inside. "This fantasy-land that we were going to, Wellington… it was gonna get us killed. Even if it did exist, we wouldn't know where to look! And what if the people there were just bat-shit crazy people who'd sooner stick a knife in your throat while you slept than let you live in peace? I don't know why we'd go anywhere else to be honest, not with this little fortress we've got going here."

"A fortress needs people to defend it," I remind her sadly, despite having turned away that family back there. "But… yeah. This is a good setup we've got going here."

"I'm glad you think so," Jane acknowledges, "and… I wanted to thank you again, Clem. I was pretty surprised that you still wanted to come with me after the shit I pulled, but – "

"It's okay, Jane. You don't have to say anymore," I interrupt, not wanting to delve into that conversation any time soon.

Nodding her head in appreciation, Jane finishes up and wipes her hands on her jeans.

"Come on," she tells me with a wave of her hand, "we're burning daylight."

She must've cared about Luke a lot more than she was letting on.

…..

_Two weeks later…_

"Hey, big guy… it's okay, it's just a storm. Don't cry," I soothe, sitting in one of the lawn chairs that I brought in from the pen. It was more like a slave pen if you ask me. I gently rub circles on his back as the thunder claps again, startling the young infant and making him cry. It's a good thing that we're under a roof right now, otherwise we'd probably be getting soaked.

Jane told me that she was going to check the perimeter for walkers, but she's been gone for quite a while. Yes, this place is pretty freaking big, but you'd think that we'd at least hear her by now.

Of course, though, Jane insisted that I stay in here with AJ instead of coming to help her. I'm pretty sure it's just because Jane's paranoid – that incident with the baby throwing up on her had taken its toll.

I hum the tune to a children's song that used to put me to sleep when I was younger, hoping that by some miracle it'll work on little AJ here. I haven't listened to music in forever – it's one of the things that I really miss. Things just feel so much more vibrant and alive when a song comes on the radio.

Though now I suppose that most things _aren't _vibrant or alive these days. Everyone's gone except for Jane, AJ and I. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be in this situation.

"Clem?" Jane calls out, causing me to look towards the door and breathe out a sigh of relief when I see that she's alright. Why was I worried in the first place? Jane can handle herself just fine. "We've got another one coming to the front gate."

"Walker?" I question, getting my pistol ready in response to an immediate threat.

"No, it's a woman," she explains briskly, folding her arms across her chest. "Skinny, kind of tall, long, brown hair. She looks pretty dangerous to me."

"She's all alone?" I ask, kind of surprised. Usually, except in special cases, people choose to stick with at least one other person. "Did you tell her to leave yet? Was she armed?"

"One question at a time," Jane chuckles, before her face regains its stern look. "She's got a rifle, but she's just rooting around outside. I don't think she's noticed me yet, so we'll have to play this cool. If she tries breaking in, we'll just shoot her and be done with it."

"What can I do to help?"

"Just back me up, alright? And if shit hits the fan, which it always does, take AJ and run."

"I'm not going anywhere, Jane," I respond, following her towards the gate. "Not after all this. We can't split up now."

"Sometimes you don't have a choice, Clem," she retorts as we make our way to the gate. The storm's really raging out there, as the rain pounds on the parking lot and lightning occasionally lights up the surroundings. The roof is a little leaky where we're standing right now, so I hold one arm over AJ so that he doesn't get wet.

"I don't see anybody," I comment, watching as Jane furrows her brow.

"There's no way that she just disappeared," Jane whispers, turning the safety off of her pistol. "Stay close to me – we're gonna find this girl."

"Don't shoot straight away unless she's dangerous, Jane."

"Somebody skulking around our home seems pretty dangerous to me."

With a sigh, I follow my friend (it doesn't feel as weird when I call her that now) back upstairs; placing AJ in his little makeshift bed before doing so. He's fallen asleep, so hopefully the noise won't wake him up again.

The rain soaks through my jacket as we try to scan out all around the parking lot. Nothing so far.

"Really wishing now that you still had that leather jacket," I comment dryly, earning a small chuckle from the older woman. She's not so cold and isolated once you get through to her. "See anything yet?"

"No not rea – Wait! There she is, over there!"

Jane points towards a rusted, overturned car where, sure enough, the shadowy form of the woman Jane was describing is checking out carefully. I'd yell to her that nothing's inside if I could, but she'd probably just shoot at us. If she has a rifle and is all by herself, then I've got little doubt that she'd be able to make that shot from here.

"What do you want to do?" Jane asks, her eyes piercing as the woman exits the car and puts her hood up over her head.

"Let her come to us," I suggest, not wanting to get caught out in the open. "We don't want to draw any of her fire towards us. If she tries to break in, then we shoot, but let's get back downstairs."

"Shit! She's coming this way!" Jane hisses, doing as I suggest and quickly making her way back down the steps. She almost trips over AJ, and he starts crying as he's rudely interrupted from his sleepy time.

"Go, I'll meet you there," I instruct, bending down to scoop the baby up in my arms. AJ's had a bit of a rough night with all the loud, scary noises going on, so I try to comfort him as best I can. Sometimes I wonder if Rebecca was just telling me that I was a natural with him to make me feel better, or if she was really telling the truth. I hope that I'm doing her and Alvin's memories some justice with him…

"Well? Who the fuck are you?!" Jane yells, no doubt getting riled up by the possible intruder already. I'm pretty sure that the woman has snapped back at her, but it's difficult to hear with the storm raging outside. As quietly and stealthily as we can, AJ and I make our way towards the gate.

"We're all full up here, unfortunately. I think it'd be best if you just left," Jane instructs coldly, brandishing her weapon at her side as she throws a steely glare towards this stranger.

"Listen, lady," she argues, the rain pounding on her sweater as she talks, "I've been through fucking hell to get here, alright? This is the only good place that I've found in a while, and my food's almost completely run out. I've lost everyone that I've cared about – "

"Everyone has!" Jane barks back, venom slipping over her words.

This woman sounds vaguely familiar… but I'm not sure why. Everyone that I know has either died or left (here's looking at you, Bonnie and Mike), so who else could possibly be left?

I walk out beside Jane and cock my head to the side as the woman studies my face. I can't really make her out under the hood and the darkness, but she can't seem to tear her gaze away from me and argue some more with Jane.

"Umm… do I know you?" I ask inquisitively, cocking up an eyebrow as AJ fiddles around in my arms.

Lowering her hood, the woman stares wide-eyed at me and drops her weapon uselessly to the ground.

Instantly, a flash of memories come back to me, with the motor-inn and Macon and the RV… and Carley.

Taking out my pistol, I aim it right towards Lilly and glare as fiercely as I can manage. I may have gotten over all of that a long time ago, but it still doesn't change how I feel about her.

"Oh fuck," Lilly says simply, holding her hands up in surrender.

_AN: Alright, so what do you guys think of this so far? This story's not going to be that long, as I suspect that the very most it'll be is four or five chapters, but I just had to put this out. Thanks for reading, and please drop a review if you'd be so kind :) Later, gators! _


	2. Old feelings die hard

The rain pounds against her hair (which she's cut considerably shorter since the last time I saw her), and her face has droplets rolling down her cheeks. There are several dark circles below her eyes, indicating a lot of restless nights, but her gaze still has that fierceness about her that always used to scare me. It's just not quite as pronounced as it was before.

Jane watches our exchange with confusion, as she really has no idea what the two of us have been through together. If she did, then I'm pretty sure Jane would've shot her square in the head the second she walked up to the gate.

"I take it you two know each other?" she asks, leaning against the wall as I nod silently. I can't tell how Lilly's feeling right now, but I'd imagine that it's a complete shock to find me of all people out in a place like this.

"Just give me a chance, Clem," Lilly huffs, not wanting me to pull the trigger and end her miserable life already. I'm very tempted to do so.

"Did you give Carley a chance?!" I yell out over the rain. Lilly seems unfazed by this, as she's probably gone over that scenario a hundred times at least.

"I can't take back what happened," Lilly admits, putting her arms back down at her side, "but I'm not here to hurt you – that's a promise. I just need a place to hold up in for a little while."

When I say nothing and narrow my gaze even more, Jane steps in as AJ starts to doze off again.

"Listen lady – "

"Lilly," she hisses, snapping at Jane sharply.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Jane rolls her eyes, "It's obvious you've fucked up somehow, and we're not taking any new members. So you'd best be moving on! Clem, back me up on this, would ya?"

The cold metal of my pistol gleams dangerously as I continue to hold it in front of me. I _do not _trust this woman at all. Whatever sort of relationship we may have had with each other ended when she murdered Carley on the side of the road, and then jacked the RV when we weren't paying attention. Who's to say that she won't just do the same sort of crap again?

Glancing back to the ground, Lilly puts her hood back up, grabs her gun and starts walking back out into the rain. The woman's gotten even scrawnier than before (not that I'm one to talk), but there's something different about her. When she spoke to me, there wasn't any malice behind her words (except when she talked to Jane), and she seemed as though she actually did kind of change during her time away from our group.

But… it's Lilly! The stone-cold, yelling, scary lady who I always made a point to stay away from whenever she was in one of her moods. Granted, whenever Kenny wasn't around she was pretty kind towards me, so…

God damn it. Jane's gonna kill me.

"Lilly, wait!" I call out to her as she spins around. "How… how do I know I can trust you?"

After pausing and giving it some thought, Lilly gives me the most honest answer she has.

"You don't."

Getting a better grip on the sleeping bundle in my arms, I put my pistol back into my pocket and turn towards Jane.

"Let her come on in."

"Are you crazy?!" Jane argues, not on board with the idea at all. "She's dangerous, Clem! I could see it on your face – something happened between you two that you're not telling me, and obviously it was really, really bad. And now you wanna just let her back in?!"

"We'll keep an eye on her," I respond calmly, putting a finger to my lips to tell Jane to be quieter. "She can sleep out in the pen, and we'll put her to work on some of the things around here. I know her, Jane, and yeah she screwed up before. But she's not a stranger. Believe me: the second she tries to steal anything or hurt one of us, she's gone. We might even need to kill her… But I can't send her out on her own again."

"What the hell have I gotten myself into…" Jane questions, rubbing her hand through her hair tiredly. "Fine, it's your funeral, Clem."

As Jane hollers for Lilly to come around the side, I retreat into the loading dock and wait for her to enter. This could either be a chance to make things right again, or the biggest mistake that I've made in a long time. The biggest one was listening to that kidnapper and leaving Lee…

Lilly opens the door a few seconds later, completely drenched with water from head to toe. She tries shaking herself dry, but it's not going to be much use. Putting her out in the pen will just cause her to freeze to death.

"There's an office upstairs you can sleep in," I tell her emotionlessly, pointing up towards Carver's old personal space. Man, I hated him…

"Umm… what's with the dead guy?" she asks suddenly, and I turn around to see that we still haven't moved Carver's rotting corpse out of the loading dock yet. The rain's drowning out the stench for now, but I imagine that tomorrow it's gonna fill the entire room.

"The worst kind of person there is," I explain sadly, not going into more detail than that. "Meet us down here tomorrow; we'll find you something to do."

"Sounds fair," she nods, standing there kind of awkwardly as she looks around the room. She must have not interacted with a whole lot of people after she ditched us like that. "Well… thanks, I guess."

Not responding, I walk back into the staff room where Jane, AJ and I sleep as I watch Lilly head off in the other direction. When the door to Carver's office finally closes, I walk in to see Jane already laying on her side facing away from me.

"I hope you know what you're doing, kid," she warns, turning her body when she hears me place AJ down gently.

"I'm not a kid."

"You're eleven," she retorts with a smirk, "that qualifies you as being a kid."

"Well, how old are you?" I ask, folding my arms across my chest. This isn't really helping my cause, is it?

"Should be twenty-six now, but hell… my birthday could've already passed and I'd have had no idea. It's not as if anyone's counting the days anymore," she shrugs, propping her head up with her hand as she continues to talk to me. "Didn't Bonnie say that they still had some alcohol around here somewhere?"

"I think so… why?"

"One of these days, you and I are going to have a drink together. A proper one," she clarifies, reminding me of that day at the power station. Why couldn't things be like that all the time? It was so much more peaceful than what happened afterwards… people hadn't turned on each other yet.

"I'd like that," I smile slightly, settling myself down on the crappy mattress that I snagged once we got here. Neither of us had been allowed to sleep in here back when I was still with the cabin group, but I realize now that it really isn't that much nicer. It's certainly warmer, but the room in dank and depressing. It's literally just four concrete walls surrounding us with some cupboards, a busted coffee machine (which Jane was _really _pissed about), and a water cooler.

Beats the living hell out of sleeping outdoors though.

"So how do you know this… "Lilly" person anyways?" she asks me suddenly, still skeptical about my choice.

Where do I even begin with this?

"I was with her and… Kenny… when all of this first started," I begin, trying not to upset her about that incident again. "We had a big group – there must've been around ten of us at one point – and she became the leader after nobody else really wanted to do it."

"Hmph…" she grunts, still not that impressed with her description.

"Things were going pretty well for a while," I explain, rubbing my fingertips along the fabric of this itchy, blue blanket that I found. "The details are kind of fuzzy, but we were staying at a motor-inn and would go into the town for supply runs every once in a while. Well, Lee did anyways…"

"He was your friend, I take it?" Jane clues in as I nod solemnly.

"He taught me how to survive… how to shoot a gun, keeping my hair short, going straight through the walkers like you did. I miss him," I sigh sadly, still holding onto the picture of him despite everything that's happened. "He and Lilly got along pretty well for the most part. They didn't always agree with each other, but they knew how to compromise."

"But then the dairy happened…" I say quietly, and Jane quirks an eyebrow towards me. Yeah, it shouldn't sound that foreboding, but it was an experience that I'd never forget. "These dairy farmers took us into their home when we started running out of food. Turns out they were a bunch of cannibals who tried to feed us human meat, but Lee stopped me from doing it."

"Disgusting," Jane comments, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head in disgust. "That's straight fucked up. What could drive someone to go to that level?"

"You're telling me," I agree, closing my eyes as the next part replays in my head. "They stuffed us in a meat locker, and Lilly's dad had a heart attack. Kenny thought he was dead, so…"

"So… what?" Jane asks worriedly, seeing as how I've stopped mid-way through my sentence.

"He… Kenny smashed his head with a salt lick," I shudder after having kept that memory buried for so long. Jane doesn't really know what to say to that – probably trying to justify her actions on trying to convince me to kill the man. "After we got out, Lilly… she was never the same. She closed herself off from the rest of us and was just so miserable all the time."

"Then one day, some bandits I think it was, they stormed our camp after not getting medicine from one of our group members. We headed off in an RV to escape, and Lilly… she just snapped. She brought the group members outside and shot one of them in the head when she thought that they were somehow involved. Lee let her back on the RV, but she took off in it after we found a train. I hadn't seen her since tonight."

"_Fuuucckkk…_" Jane sighs, drawling out the swear word as she mumbles into her palms. "So we just let in a murderer and a thief?"

"Maybe she's changed, I don't know. What I do know is that she's a hard worker, and she can shoot a gun probably better than either of us. We need that sort of thing around here," I reason, trying to justify my actions not only to Jane, but also to myself. I was so close to just shutting her out of my life forever – a part of me is still bitter over Carley and leaving us stranded, but we've all made mistakes. We've all… fucked up… at some point over the past two years.

It's just… she's made more than others.

"Just watch yourself, Clem. And AJ," she adds after the fact, before turning onto her side to get some rest. "I don't trust her, and I don't think you should either. Who knows what two years has done to her?"

"That's what I'm worried about," I sigh, before turning over one last time to see AJ sleeping soundly. "Night, Jane."

"Night, Clem."

With nothing more to be said, I close my eyes and begin to drift off to a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep…

…..

"_Bonnie, come on! We've gotta go!"_

"_Don't you touch me!" Bonnie snaps, gazing down at my bleeding form but doing absolutely nothing to help. I hear her say sorry, and it rings in my ears constantly, but it makes no difference. "Sorry" doesn't stop Arvo from pulling the trigger; doesn't stop you and Mike sprinting off with our supplies._

"_HOW COULD YOU MURDER A FUCKING CHILD?!" Kenny bellows, going in for the swing as Jane dodges; a dangerous, rage-induced craze in his eye as he's swiped at by Jane. The two grapple at each other for a moment, but I can't do anything about it – instead sitting here helplessly as the two of them tear each other to pieces._

"_Don't come near me, you son of a bitch!" she hisses; her knife fresh from Kenny's stomach wound as they tumble through the window and outside. I cringe as she digs her fingers into Kenny's bad eye and he screams out in complete agony._

_I need to put an end to this!_

_My legs are suddenly free, and I throw Jane off of the fisherman as he jabs Jane's knife into her leg. I'm knocked backwards as they collide into me, and I woozily look at my gun._

"_Please…" I beg them with teary eyes, watching as Kenny holds the knife dangerously over Jane's chest._

_Suddenly though, seeing no other option available to prevent two of my last remaining friends from dying, I bring the gun up to my forehead as the both of them turn in horror._

"_CLEM STOP!" Kenny yells, crawling towards me as Jane looks on, flabbergasted that I'm willing to take such drastic measures._

_My breathing stops as my finger slowly pulls the trigger… and then all I see is darkness as it clouds my vision. _

"_NOOOOOOOO!" _

Waking up in a cold sweat, I quickly glance around the room with heavy breaths. Just a nightmare thankfully… a messed up, yet so realistic nightmare. Everything just felt so real there…

Alvin Junior has woken up beside me and is making some whiny, gurgling sounds, so I pick him up to find him something to eat.

"Morning, AJ," I yawn loudly, smirking at the handsome baby boy as I pick him up. His diaper definitely needs changing, but I'm gonna tell Jane that it's her department. I bet she'll get a kick out of that!

Speaking of which, where _is _Jane, anyways?

Wandering out into the hallway, I stop when I notice that Lilly's examining the shelves of supplies that we've still got here. Instantly, my suspicion increases tenfold, and I raise an eyebrow as I approach from behind. Somehow she hears my silent footsteps, and Lilly turns around carefully.

"Just seeing how well you guys have got it," she explains herself, probably recognizing that she was being monitored. "That's a lot of food you've got there. Should last you for quite a while if you ration it properly."

"That's the idea," I tell her simply, lifting AJ up a little higher so that he doesn't fall to the floor.

Lilly looks at the baby for quite a while, as if she's examining an alien species or something. Obviously she hasn't had much experience around kids.

"Please tell me that baby's not yours," she remarks, sighing in relief when I shake my head slowly. "Good, because you're… way too young for that sort of thing."

"Where's Jane?" I ask, not commenting further on AJ. He's on a need to know basis only.

Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Lilly mentions something about her going up to the greenhouse to check on how the plants were doing.

"Alright…" I cut off, thinking of something that she could work on for the time being. Something that _doesn't _involve our supplies. "We could use some help on barricading the gates. There are wooden planks in some of the aisles of the hardware store, and some nails down there too. If any walkers try to get in… well, you've got your gun. Just yell for us and we'll come."

Nodding once, Lilly takes one long look at me before starting to head off to do her tasks. However, before she reaches the door, Lilly stops for a moment. Curious, I look over towards her as she tilts her head back towards me.

"So… I'm guessing that the others…"

"Why did you kill Carley?" I ask her, not willing to go into detail about the people she abandoned. "We all head out of the RV, wait for Kenny to finish killing the walker, and then you shoot her square in the face. You didn't even hesitate; didn't even care. Why?"

"…you already know why, Clementine…"

"I wouldn't be asking if I knew."

"She…" Lilly stops, old emotions flaring about her eyes as she pushes some hair out of her face. "If Carley had just minded her own god-damned business, then I wouldn't have…"

"That doesn't justify anything," I argue back quietly, shaking my head, "especially murder."

"So does that make Kenny or Lee any better than I am?" she retorts, placing her hands on her hips. "I've paid my price, Clem. I made a mistake, and I've lived with it."

"If you hadn't pulled out your gun, then Carley would still – "

"Do you even remember what she looks like? What she even _sounds _like?" she asks me, causing me to step back a little bit. I hate to admit it, but… not really. Sure, I was around her for three months, and I always enjoyed having her around, but the only thing that really sparks my mind anymore is how she died.

"I see her in my mind; hear her damn voice in my head every night," she sighs, no longer as harshly as before. "Every time I close my eyes, it's that fucking image in my head – Carley's haunted me for two years. I don't need to hear about it anymore…. What's done is done."

Turning on her heel, Lilly slowly walks out of the room as I stand there holding little AJ in my arms. She's given me quite a lot to think about here.

As for Alvie, I'm off to find Jane. Cleaning duties for a week beats diaper duty any day – like, ever.

But as I ascend the stairs up to the roof, I can't help but replay Lilly's conversation over in my head. Is anger about Carley's murder really clouding my mind?

Maybe it's time to let old feelings go.


	3. Rough patches

_AN: Thank you for all the feedback, ladies and gents! Your support for this thing is absolutely unreal!_

"How long is it supposed to be before he starts speaking?" I ask inquisitively, playing with AJ's hands as he sits on my lap.

"I have no idea," Jane admits, warming her hands up against the fire while struggling to stay warm. I told her to bring her jacket with her out to the pen, but she wouldn't listen. "I'd read a parenting book if we had one somewhere, but the only reading material I've ever seen is some stupid magazines up in the office – snowboarding magazines, mostly."

"That actually sounds like fun," I point out, grimacing as I'll likely never be able to try it… among the thousands of other things that I won't be able to do.

Rolling her eyes, Jane rubs her arms in a vain attempt to get warm.

"Rub your chest instead," I explain to her, shrugging as she looks over at me. "That's the more important one – your arms will take care of themselves."

"Who taught you that? Lee?" she asks, obliging as she shivers when a gust of wind picks up.

I shake my head solemnly. "No… that was Christa. I was with her right before I met Luke and them."

"You seem to know more about this whole survival thing than I do – that's not an easy accomplishment," she acknowledges, as I shrug in response. What do I get? A cookie for a job well done? It's nothing special, really. It's like shooting a gun – you just do it to stay alive.

Although, come to think of it, I really _would _like a cookie right about now.

"As for your first question," she ponders, biting her lip as she gazes upon a smiling AJ, "I don't think you'll have to worry about him talking back to you anytime soon. He was just born a little while ago, after all."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I reply, smiling with content as he puts his hand over top of mine. It's so weird how small he is, but a part of me wishes that he never changes. I guess this is why my mom and dad always used to call me their little girl, even when I was eight years old. "I don't remember which comes first, though – the walking or the talking."

"We'll figure it out," she assures me, before standing up and walking back towards the staff room. "Fuck this, I'm bringing a sweater."

"Told ya so!"

"Stuff it, Clementine!"

Chuckling quietly to myself, I take my hat off for a moment and run my fingers through my curly, black hair. I found myself liking it a lot better short, and not just because walkers couldn't get at it as easily. My old hairstyle was honestly just a jumbled up mess, and I've sort of grown into my own person since then.

"I hope that I'm raising you right, buddy," I whisper to AJ, even though he has no idea what I mean. He coos innocently, and I can't help but be amazed that such an untainted kid still actually exists in this world. Just when you think that life is officially over, something gets up and surprises you.

Like Lilly, for instance, as she sits in a chair off by herself; looking out into the night for any potential intruders. I've gotta say, she's taken to working around here pretty well so far. I haven't heard her complain once, or try to take on a leadership role or anything.

Do I trust her though? No, not yet. That'll come slowly with time.

Cradling AJ, I decide to walk over and invite her to sit with us by the fire. That might just be the first step on the long road to recovery.

"You need to eat something," I inform her quietly, watching as she stares out into the distance as if she was on watch at the motor-inn. Some things never change, I suppose. "Come on over to the fire with us. We've still got some canned corn you can have, and it's a lot warmer over there."

"Aren't you two still worried that I'm gonna steal all your supplies?" she asks suspiciously, turning her gaze away from the parking lot for only a brief moment. "Shouldn't you be watching me to make sure that I don't take off?"

"Well, you're still here, aren't you?" I point out the obvious, raising an eyebrow as she sighs heavily.

"Fine," she relents, hopping off the ledge and following me over to the burning embers. Funny how just over a month ago I was sitting here with an entire group… and now there are four of us, two of which weren't here the last time. Lilly takes a seat beside me in one of the fold-up lawn chairs and rubs her hands together in front of the fire for warmth.

"Why _are _you still here, anyways?" I ask once the silence of the night settles in. "You could've taken off last night with a bunch of food, some medicine and guns. Nobody would've been able to stop you – we were all sleeping."

"Maybe I'm not as horrible a person as you think I am, Clementine," she remarks slightly bitterly, opening up one of the corn packages and tossing some into her mouth. She seems to savour every last bite, and it makes me wonder when the last time she had a proper meal was.

"Damn, that feels soooo much better," Jane comments as she walks back in, not noticing our guest yet, "Thank god it hasn't snowed around here, otherwise I'd be – oh."

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Jane goes silent as Lilly continues to not look at anybody. Now this right here… _this _is awkward as hell. After what I told her about Lilly the other night, Jane has had nothing but disdain for the other woman.

From what I can tell so far, I'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual.

"So Jane, I was thinking," I start off slowly, picking AJ up despite his protests to go exploring, "maybe you and I should go out to look for some more supplies. Medicine, formula, things like that."

Glancing over at the brown-haired woman on the opposite side of her, Jane narrows her eyes and shakes her head.

"I think one of us should be at Howe's at all times," she replies, and glances over at me as an afterthought. "You know, for the baby and all."

"If you don't like me, then fucking say it to my face," Lilly snarls lowly, glancing up to match Jane's steely gaze. "Don't be a god-damned coward and hide behind an eleven year old girl the whole time."

"Alright, fine! If we're gonna be so blunt about it, then yeah! I don't like you or trust you!" Jane shouts accusingly. "You're always skulking around, looking through our shit! Do you think I'm stupid or something? I know your type – take first, ask questions later!"

"You don't know anything about me!" she retorts, making my insides clench uncomfortably. Jane wouldn't… Please?

"Oh yeah? Then why were you out there all alone then, huh?" Jane questions, making me sigh in slight relief. Maybe she won't blurt out what I told her! "Maybe it had to do with the fact that you _killed one of your group members!"_

Shit.

I bury my head in my hand to try and avoid eye contact with either of them (mostly Lilly, because this is gonna go downhill fast). God damn it! Is it physically impossible for anyone to have secrets anymore?!

When I poke my head back up, the two of them are simply fighting with each other, so I feel that now's as good a time as any to step in.

"Guys! You're scaring AJ!" I hiss as the baby watches the exchange with wide eyes. That doesn't seem to bother these two, however.

"You're so full of crap! With you leading, this place will probably fall within the next few weeks!" Lilly jabs, getting more agitated by the second.

"We haven't had any problems at all here since we've been back! Right Clem?" she asks, looking at me as I reluctantly nod my head. "See? We were doing just fine until you came along! Things were nice and peaceful, but then you show up with your snotty attitude and everyone's suddenly on edge!"

"It's a wonder that you've managed to survive this long! Clem seems to be the only one with any brains!" Lilly argues, surprising me as she's actually giving me a compliment. "Maybe if you weren't such a dumbass, then you would've stopped to think that I was doing inventory for you!"

"Fucking hell, you and Kenny would've been a perfect match for each other!"

That silences the area, save for AJ's crying after that whole fiasco. I'd be more attentive to him right now, but I'm in shock. Did Jane just say what I think she said?

"How the fuck do you know him…" Lilly snarls, not swayed by the fact that there could possibly be more than one Kenny's in the world.

"Great – we both hated him. Fantastic," Jane comments sarcastically, rolling her eyes and looking up to the stars. "Looks like we had something in common after all."

"What do you mean _had_?" Lilly questions, turning her calculating stare towards me. "Clem, what's she talking about? Where's Kenny?"

"In a park where we left him…" Jane mumbles as Lilly glares fiercely at her.

"Was I talking to you?!" she snaps, giving me a look that demands an answer right now. Lilly deserves to know what happened to him, I suppose – even if it's so hard to relive in my head.

"I…" I stutter, breathing in sharply, "I killed… Kenny…"

Lilly's jaw hangs open as her eyes become two gigantic saucers. That definitely wasn't what she expected to hear.

"You what?!"

"I had to!" I cry out, tears forming in my eyes as the memory of Kenny and Jane fighting floods back to me. "Kenny lost everything, and he just… snapped…"

Oh boy, I see where Lilly's going with this now as she gives me a knowing look. This sounds familiar – Lilly loses her dad, she lashes out and kills someone. Kenny loses his family, he tries to kill Ben, Arvo and Jane. I shoot Kenny… and, yeah.

"He was going to kill Jane…" I explain sadly, lowering my gaze to the floor. "She told us that AJ died, and Kenny thought that she did it on purpose. So they fought, and Kenny was about to put a knife in her chest. So I shot him… all Kenny wanted was for someone to end his misery."

"You two are hypocrites," she accuses, glaring at both Jane and I before standing up to leave. "You keep berating me about stealing and murdering, when you guys have done the exact same shit as I have. How about instead of accusing me of being some heartless bitch out in the woods, you look at yourselves and question your own actions?"

Jane looks ready to fight back for round two, but she simply huffs and looks at the ground in annoyance. She really doesn't like to lose arguments, especially with people like Lilly. She's okay when it comes to me, as we seem to be on the same page most of the time.

But god damn, do I feel guilty…

"I don't know where all that came from. I'm sorry, Clem, I just…" she cuts herself off, shaking her head and letting the embers die down low.

"I'm gonna head out with Lilly tomorrow morning," I inform her, not acknowledging her look of protest. "You two need to spend some time apart, and I'm not so sure that Lilly would know how to look after AJ."

"And I do?" she asks disbelievingly, putting her hands in her pockets as the two of us stand up to head off to bed.

"You've got the basics down, I think," I try complimenting, though it doesn't do much. "Plus… I think you and Lilly wouldn't make it out of the parking lot without killing each other."

"Well hey, come on! I've got a little bit of self-control!" she retorts with a smirk, chuckling as I give her a look. "Okay… but I still think we'd at least make it out of the parking lot."

"Whatever you say, Jane."

…..

The dense, thick trees of the forest block out much of the sunlight as Lilly and I silently walk down the pathway. There are birds, squirrels and all manner of wildlife around here… including walkers if we're not careful.

But thankfully for us, we're _always _careful.

I know the area pretty well at this point, seeing as how I've been through the forests several times now. However, the town that we're going to across the river from Parker's Run, I'm not very familiar with at all. We never really got a chance to stop there after we took off, what with the Russians attacking us and Rebecca dying along the way.

Lilly seems like she knows where we're going as well, and it makes me wonder just how long she's been in North Carolina for now.

Walkers shouldn't be much of a problem for us, as we've already dealt with two of them and we're both armed. Lilly's a beast with her rifle, but she shouldn't be a threat to me.

Well, at least I don't _think _she is, anyways.

"I'm sorry," I mention to her, shocked that I'm the one apologizing after everything that's happened between us. "It wasn't right of me to treat you that way… and you were right about that whole Kenny thing; how it wasn't anything different from you. So, I'm sorry."

"Well, I'm sure it was more complicated than that," she admits, scanning the area for any potential threats. "It always was with him. I had a feeling he was dead when I saw you alone with Jane… but I just didn't figure that it'd be _you _of all people to pull the trigger."

"…I had to shoot Lee, too. He… he got bit, and I had to put him down before he turned."

"…god damn it…"

"What is it?" I ask, worried that there might be a walker or something up ahead. My worry only grows when she rubs her eyes tiredly and sighs.

"Remember when I took off in the RV?" Lilly asks as I nod, walking alongside her now instead of behind her. "Well… I asked him before I left if he… wanted to come with me. He told me yes…"

"Really?" I ask in disbelief. Lee wanted to take off with _her? _Even after she killed Carley?! Wow… never would've guessed that. "Well, why'd you leave then?"

"Panicked, I guess," she confesses, taking out a knife and jabbing it into the back of a walker's brain. "I was getting paranoid at that point – when he went off to find you, I thought that he'd just tell Kenny what I was planning on doing. Add to the fact that you were probably scared shitless of me at that point, and I didn't want to take you away from them. So I left, and never looked back."

"Was it quick for him at least? Lee didn't suffer at all, did he?" Lilly asks, making me realize that she must've cared for him quite a bit.

"He tried cutting his arm off," I sigh, wincing at the thought of doing something so horrible. "It was all my fault… if I had just stayed with him instead of trying to find my parents… I was stupid."

"You were young," she corrects me, squinting her eyes as we approach the town that we were searching for. "Kids are supposed to make mistakes, Clem. It's just a part of growing up. We've all made mistakes…"

"…maybe…" I mutter, crouching as we slowly sneak up towards one of the buildings. That church that I had seen on the observation deck is pretty close by, so maybe we can start in there. There's gotta be _something _around this place – I don't want to have come all this way for nothing!

"Keep your guard up," Lilly orders as I pull out my pistol and hold it in front of me. Lilly checks her corners before sprinting over to a gift shop; me hot on her trail as we come to a halt. "How about we check this place out first, and then move on to the other buildings?"

"Sounds like a plan," I agree as she smashes the window pane on the door and undoes the lock.

Checking to make sure that we haven't been followed, I walk in after Lilly does a quick first search of the place. There's not a whole bunch in here, save for some stupid souvenirs of Parker's Run and some travelling pamphlets. There is, however, a vending machine that's still full of snacks inside.

"Trick or treat, I guess," I comment sarcastically, with Lilly walking up beside me to examine the machine.

"We're gonna have to shoot the frame," she explains, shrugging her shoulders as I point to the glass that she just smashed earlier. "This thing's part plastic – it's a lot harder to bust open. This is gonna make a shit-ton of noise though."

"Use my pistol then," I suggest, seeing's how we don't have any pillows or anything to block off the noise. "I'll watch the door."

As she gets set to fire the gun, I take a look outside to that big, white church with the large chapel going up into the air. I'm thinking that that should be our next stop – who knows what'll be inside?

_BANG! BANG!_

"Could we be a little louder next time?" I snip sarcastically as Lilly huffs and starts putting the food into my backpack. Yep, that part of Lilly I remember – always so serious all the time. I guess that it's kept her alive this whole time, but can't she just… I don't know. Live a little? Is that too much to ask?

"Church?" I ask simply after we've collected our treats, and she nods quickly as we exit the gift shop. This town seems almost deserted! Where are all the walkers and such? I thought for sure that we'd be encountering more resistance than this!

Of course, that's what I thought about Savannah too when we first arrived, and look at how that turned out. Better to always be on alert in places like this…

Quickly and silently making our way over to the church doors, the two of us hold our guns up and get ready to barge inside. One, two…

"Wait," Lilly interrupts, putting a hand up to stop our approach. "You hear that?"

Listening carefully, at first all I can hear is the river on the other side of this building. But after a couple of seconds, there's something else. It sounds like… talking. Are there people inside this church?

"Shit," she swears quietly, "Come on – we'll try looking through one of these windows."

"But they've all got pictures on them," I comment, noting that a bunch of them are stained-glass windows with pretty little designs on them.

Biting her lip, Lilly looks down the row of windows until she spots a clear one with a door beside it that's slightly ajar. We scurry on over without making a sound, and try to peek our way inside.

"I don't see anybody," Lilly whispers urgently, pushing the door more open to get a better view. I poke my head in as well, but I don't see any activity…

…until five seconds later.

"Shoot them," I hiss angrily, my grip on my pistol tightening significantly as I grit my teeth together. "Don't let them get away from this alive! Shoot them right in the head!"

"Are you fucking crazy?!" she retorts, not liking my planning skills at all. But I don't care! They fucked us and backstabbed us! "Why?!"

"If you won't do it, then I will," I conclude, carefully making my way inside without being spotted. Sighing angrily, Lilly follows me into the church with her gun raised.

"_I'm telling you – Texas is the only option," _I hear the bastard remark, rubbing his hand over his bald head.

"_And how the hell are we even supposed to get there?" _the jerkface replies, placing one hand on her hip. _"We didn't take the truck, remember?"_

But the tip of the iceberg comes when the third dickhead shows up; the bruises on his face still healing from his abuse over a month ago. I'm gonna give him for than just a few bruises though…

With absolutely no remorse, and Lilly here to back me up, I stand up and fire a bullet straight into Arvo's bad leg; causing him to collapse and cry out in pain.

Bonnie and Mike stare at me in absolute horror and terror, completely scared of me as I aim my gun directly at them.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!" I swear with as much venom as I can possibly manage, as Lilly stands beside me with her rifle raised as well.


	4. Church violence

Whimpering and moaning on the floor, Arvo struggles to reach for his pistol a few feet away from him, but I pick it up quickly as Lilly trains her weapon on Bonnie and Mike. That gunshot echoed throughout the hall, and the noise is still ringing in my ears as I place Arvo's weapon in my back pocket.

"Hurts, doesn't it?!" I yell at the wriggling Arvo, whose attempts to glare at me come up short – deep down I know he's just a scared, little boy who made a big mistake. "I keep Jane from stealing your medicine, I try my best to keep Kenny from ripping you apart, and then you shoot me in the shoulder?! That's your thanks?!"

"Clem… what the hell?! What in god's name are you doing to him?!" Bonnie asks in shock, as I roll my eyes and provide her with the most basic answer I can come up with.

"I'm doing what you should've done!" I accuse, making a point of trying to make her feel as bad as possible. "Don't try to say that you're a better person than I am, 'cause you're not! You two are spineless, untrustworthy pieces of dog shit that I never should have believed in the first place!"

"Come on, you're being irrational!" Mike protests, raising his hands out in surrender just like he did back at that stack of toothpicks. Well I'm not falling for their antics this time, no way! "Just put the gun down, and walk away."

"So you can what? Follow Lilly and I to finish the job?" I remark sarcastically, and the three of them turn towards Lilly as if she's just shown up in the room. "Thanks, but I'll pass on that."

"Where's everyone else?" Bonnie asks quietly; her voice more reserved now than ever.

"Not that it would've mattered to you," I spit out harshly, not backing down from them, "but… Kenny's dead. There, are you happy now? You got what you wanted! Maybe we should all go out celebrating, since one of the three people you wanted dead are gone now!"

"Am I missing something here?" Lilly chimes in, confused as to what the hell I'm babbling on about.

Not taking my eyes off of Bonnie or Mike, I try calming myself down a little after my little tirade.

"These three stole all of our supplies and were planning to leave Jane, Kenny, a freaking baby and I with absolutely nothing," I explain tiredly. "I was going to hand Mike my gun, when this jerk over here shot me in the shoulder!"

"Fuck you…" Arvo swears, muttering some other Russian profanities that make no sense to me. "You… you deserve loads more! You kill Natasha! Murder my sister, and take me as hostage!"

"What do you think these two did?!" I ask him, pointing with my gun. "We were all part of the _same group _that took you! And your sister was already a walker – if I hadn't shot her, then she would've gone over and try to eat you!"

"LIAR!" Arvo screams, his face brimming with painful tears. "Should have killed you then! In face! Shoot!"

"I'd be careful if I were you," Lilly interrupts, giving Arvo a quick glance. "Clem's the one with the gun now – she's got your life in her hands."

"Is she your lapdog or something?" Bonnie quirks, but visibly paling even more than she normally looks when Lilly aims the rifle menacingly at her.

"I've been with her since two days ago," I comment, "and I already trust her more than you."

Lilly probably thinks that I'm just saying that to prove my point… but it's actually kind of true. Despite her shortcomings, Lilly hasn't done anything since she came back to make me question her. My suspicions of what she's going to do when Jane and I have outlived her usefulness haven't faded, but for now she's starting to get into my good books. We've actually got a lot more in common than I thought we had.

That's why it's her and I standing together instead of Mike or Bonnie.

"What exactly did you want from us, Clem? Did you come here just to kill us and get revenge?" Mike asks, making me pause for just a moment. Why _am _I really here?

"No," I tell him truthfully, though still not lowering my weapon, "but… urgh, I don't even know anymore! I just got ticked off when I saw you guys in here!"

"Then why don't you just go?" Bonnie suggests, no longer the friend that I thought she could've been. Now… all I see from the two of them is betrayal. Betrayal and hurt. "Just get out of here! We'll go our separate ways, and then you'll never have to see us again!"

"Don't put words in her mouth!" Lilly barks, suddenly seeming as if she hates them just as much as I do. "I can see what you're doing – trying to manipulate an eleven year old! I bet that's what you did before, didn't you? To get what you wanted?"

"Who the hell are you to know anything about this anyway?" Mike asks, slowly backing up behind one of the church benches. What's he trying to do?

Lilly glances my way for just a brief second before telling him it's none of his god-damned business. Lilly doesn't take crap from anybody!

"All I want to know," I interrupt, lowering my gun for just a moment to illustrate my point, "is why this… _monster_… is still alive? Even after everything he did, you're still with him?! Did we mean nothing to you guys?"

"Of course you did…" Bonnie sighs, her gaze lowering to the floor as Mike moves back a little further. "But… you're alive, aren't you?"

"You didn't know that," I mention, folding my arms across my chest as Arvo glares at me. This asshole really wanted me dead…

As Bonnie is about to explain herself, I notice that Mike has practically backed up near the back of the church, and is slowly bending down to pick something up. Not liking where this is going, I prepare to draw my pistol again…

…when Arvo pulls out another gun of his own.

"LOOK OUT!" Lilly screeches as I duck for cover. Arvo's bullet scrapes my arm painfully, and I've got a nasty-looking cut there now, but there's no actual bullet wound. Grinding my teeth together, I scoot the rest of my body out of sight as the firing commences.

Both sides are sending bullets in each other's way; the sound deafening my ears as Lilly takes cover behind a pillar. She looks at me worriedly, but I simply nod and wince as the blood trickles down this stupid ski jacket. I'm gonna fill Bonnie's corpse with lead!

…okay, maybe that's a little bit morbid.

Grabbing my pistol from the floor, I keep my head down to avoid being shot at, as the bullets smash through the wooden benches and occasionally send splinters soaring over me. I drag myself over the wooden floor and stick my head out for just a second, but Arvo is no longer there. Confused and worried that he managed to slip away, I quickly look in all directions to see if he's hiding somewhere. Arvo's the first one who needs to die.

Somebody collapses a few feet away from me, and I know that stinking, lying son of a gun must've cowered for cover after the fighting started. Bonnie and Mike don't seem to notice me, as they're too distracted from shooting at Lilly, so I slowly make my way over to him. Hoping to sneak up on Arvo, I gasp as he gets the upper hand and surprises me as I turn towards him.

With a swift whack to my face, Arvo wrestles me to the ground as he kicks me right in the stomach. I contort in pain as he then kicks me in the face, and I prepare for the end.

"This is the end for you!" Arvo screeches as he aims his pistol directly at me.

But his shot never comes. Lilly's does though, as a bullet rips through his skull and sends chunks of his head spraying all over me in a disgusting fashion. Arvo's deceased body collapses on top of me, and I struggle underneath his weight to get out. At least he won't come back as a walker – then I'd be royally screwed.

"Shit! I'm out!" I hear Mike yell as the firing starts dying down. Bonnie launches off another assault on Lilly's position, and shrieks as she's shot right in the arm. "FUCK! BONNIE!"

"Urgh! Kill her! She's behind that damn pillar over there!" Bonnie grunts, having to resort to only using one arm. "Where's Clem?!"

"Damned if I know!"

It won't be long before they find me, so with all my might I shove Arvo off to the side; his body landing with a thump against the floor. I don't exactly _want _to kill Bonnie and Mike, but what the hell are we supposed to do now?!

"Did you get her?!" Bonnie yells frantically, clutching her wound as I sneak my way beside her.

"I'm not sure," Mike admits, widening his eyes as he spots me coming up beside Bonnie. "SHIT! BEHIND YOU!"

"Surprise," I say mockingly; the barrel of my gun raised dangerously to her temple as she starts panicking. "Drop it, Mike! I'll shoot her, you know I will! It's over!"

"Let her go, Clem! You don't want to do this!" he warns, not backing down as the gunfire suddenly stops. Lilly?! I could really use your help right now!

"Put your gun down now!" I bark at him, glowering as he looks between Bonnie and I. "I'm not gonna ask again! Last chance!"

"Just fucking shoot the kid, Mike! Save yourself and get out of here!"

"Shut up," I say furiously, hitting her in the side of the head with my gun. That's gonna leave a bruise. "You're not using me anymore, Bonnie! I've heard enough out of you!"

Huh… funny. I could have sworn that Lilly said almost those exact same words before she killed Carley over two years ago.

As my angry companion pops in sight, Mike knows now that he's at a disadvantage. With one gun trained on him, and mine dangerously close to Bonnie's head, he tries to figure out what his best option is.

If I were him, I'd give up and pray that Lilly and I don't shoot them for this nonsense anyways!

But, unfortunately, Mike seems to have a different agenda. As he pretends to surrender, he instead shoots Lilly in the stomach as she topples over in pain. Mike gets ready to fire again, but I take my gun off of Bonnie and shoot him twice in the hip…

The next order of business is blowing Bonnie's brains out. I hate myself for doing this, but it's the only way that we're gonna get Mike to stop shooting. Lilly's groaning in pain, and Mike bellows out as he hears me pull the trigger and end Bonnie's miserable existence.

She falls limp against my shoulder and her eyes stare into my golden orbs lifelessly. I'm sad that it had to come to this, but… they went way too far.

Scurrying over to Lilly while ignoring the pain in my arm, I bend down and sigh in relief as I see that she's still alive.

"Are you okay?" I ask dumbly.

"No!" she replies just like I expected she would. "God damn this hurts! FUCK! Just… just leave me. Go and save yourself…"

As sick and sadistic as this might sound, a part of me actually wants to do it – to leave Lilly here with Mike, gather up any other supplies from this town and then head back to Howe's with my haul. It would be so easy to do it right now… but that wouldn't make me any better than Carver.

And I flat-out _refuse _to be like Carver.

"We need to get you somewhere safe," I respond emotionlessly, turning around to make sure that Mike hasn't gotten up to kill the both of us. He more than likely wants to do it at this point, considering that the only person he's got left is dead.

"The wound doesn't look too deep," I inform her as I lift up her shirt a little bit to examine the damage. She almost instantly swats my hand away. "I can't help you if you won't let me, Lilly!"

"Just go!" she barks, her stubbornness kicking in at full force. "Don't waste your time on me. Damn it Clem, just… why?! We're nothing to each other!"

"We don't have to be," I admit, standing up and walking over to Mike and the supply bag. His face is contorted in anger, but it doesn't faze me. Not much does these days. "What do you want me to do?"

"The fuck are you talking about?" Mike questions, grunting in anger and sadness as Bonnie rests her dead body on the floor. "I don't want jack shit from you, you little punk!"

"I mean," I tell him quietly, bending down to his height and holding the pistol out in front of me, "do you want me to just… end it?"

His eyes dart between me and the gun, and after a while he shakes his head. Huffing out a sigh, I stand up and walk over to the supply bag; unzipping it and pulling out some of the baby formula along with a bottle of peroxide and cloth.

"I'm taking these for AJ and Lilly," I tell him solemnly, turning towards the man who at one time I called a friend. "The rest is yours."

"Why wouldn't you just take all of it… after what we did?" Mike asks with a glare.

"Because," I answer him simply, "I'm not like you."

Placing the various items in my backpack, I see Lilly reluctantly (and with much pain) stand up and begin following me outside. Mike sits in the back of the church and makes occasional screams as if to relieve some of his anger and sadness. We'll never see him again.

I force Lilly to wrap one of her arms around my shoulders so that she's better balanced, and the two of us make our way outside.

_AN: Alright, sorry if that wasn't what you were hoping for, but I needed Arvo to die… and as soon as the shots started, then everyone had to try and defend themselves. It just didn't turn out so well for Bonnie._

_I'm not turning Clem into some egotistical maniac, but she doesn't take shit from anyone now. She's becoming more like Lilly in that sense, with a softer side like I know that Jane can have. Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, and I'll be sure to write the next chapter as soon as I get the time!_


	5. We'll be monsters together

_AN: Okay, so I was just gonna make this five chapters, but I'm gonna end up doing one more. This has become one of my favourites to do, and the feedback you guys have been sending is absolutely amazing. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way. Just please don't tell me to kill Lilly and leave her body in a ditch somewhere – I know how some of you feel about her lol._

I should've figured this town was too good to be true, as the walkers slowly start popping out of the brush and stumble their way towards us. With Lilly still having her arm wrapped around my shoulder and in no position to be firing a gun, I grunt and try to stay out of their reach. There aren't _too _many of these things, but they're always a nuisance and they're always dangerous. You can't ever be too safe when dealing with a walker.

"They're gaining…" Lilly mentions through bated breaths. Sweat's starting to form upon her forehead, and she looks as though she's going to pass out any minute. If she does, then we're both done. I can't take on all of those things at once, while also trying to prevent them from eating her.

"We can hide in that shack," I say to her, pointing to a small, wooden building that's eerily reminiscent of the shed that I was stuffed into back then. Now all of the cabin group members are dead… but enough of that. I need to focus. Getting upset about my friends right now isn't going to help matters.

We've gotten some distance on the walkers as I pretty much toss Lilly off my shoulder. She falls with a _thump _onto the ground and groans out painfully, with me mumbling an apology as I quickly open the creaky door. Cobwebs get into my face as I enter, meaning that this place (just like the rest of this gods-forsaken town) hasn't been opened in a long time.

"Can you still walk?" I ask her urgently, worry settling in as some walkers start to get too close for my liking.

Lilly crawls into the room painfully as I slam the door behind us; cringing as their shambling limbs try to break through. Thankfully this shack has a door bar that I just slide into place, and I collapse against the door while being careful not to get any splinters.

My chest lowers and rises as my breathing starts to settle down, closing my eyes for the brief moment of rest that I can afford. Lilly's still shot, so I need to get to work on her quickly – like Lee had told me long ago, getting an infection would be a big deal now.

Paging Dr. Clementine!

"Was all that… worth it…" Lilly huffs out, lying on her back and staring at the ceiling; trying her best not to move around too much.

"We got the formula, and – "

"I mean," she interrupts, looking at me in pain, "with Bonnie and them… Are you satisfied now?"

"…I didn't mean for anyone to die," I shake my head; letting out a shaky sigh as I unzip my backpack. "Lift your shirt up – let's get the fun part out of the way first."

"They seemed like assholes to me," Lilly comments, doing as instructed but frowning as I come over towards her. "Why didn't you just do as I said? You put your life at risk, Clem."

"You'd be dead if I listened to you," I reply calmly, shrugging my shoulders as I yank the bullet out as quickly as I can. She screams in agony, but once the job's done she tries to calm herself down. She's lucky that the bullet wasn't deeper. "Now… this is gonna suck."

"Can't… be any worse… than that…" she breathes heavily, rubbing her eyes to prevent any potential tears from coming out. Wouldn't want to ruin her tough-girl rep in front of me, right?

"You saved my life," I acknowledge with a nod; dumping some of the peroxide onto the cloth and then closing the bottle back up. "Back in the church, when Arvo was about to shoot me. You saved me."

"Hmph…"

"Can't you just take a compliment for once in your life?" I sigh in annoyance, frowning as she stares at the floor. "Geez! You're as stubborn as a mule!"

"Where do you think I got that trait from…" Lilly remarks absentmindedly, leaving me with not a whole lot to say. Larry may have been a giant asshole (and I mean GIANT), but he was still her father. And to see him die that brutally… no wonder Lilly went nuts.

"Let's get this done," I say simply, wincing as she squirms under the cloth. I remember Carlos mentioning that the stinging sensation is just the medicine doing its work, but you'd think they'd have created a less painful one. Once I finish cleaning up the blood a little bit, I wrap a few bandages around it to prevent anything else from happening. "There, that's the best I can do for now. When we get back you'll have to stitch yourself up."

"I get the feeling that you've done this sort of shit before," she comments, sitting up slightly and looking visibly annoyed as we both hear the walkers still trying to break in. "And… thanks, Clem."

"Yeah…" I respond dully, sitting against a crate facing her as I lean one knee up while resting the other leg on the floor. "I wonder if Mike made it out of there."

"You shot him up pretty good," Lilly responds, not dodging the cold, hard facts. "Who knows? He's not your problem anymore."

"I just wish it didn't have to go that way," I admit with a shrug; suddenly feeling like some kind of monster. "But when I saw them in that church… I couldn't hold it in. I was just so angry, and all I wanted to do was… hurt them! The same way they hurt Jane, Kenny and I. But killing Bonnie… I didn't have to do that."

"Sometimes you don't have a choice," she tells me casually, though not looking me in the eyes as she says it. Lilly's here in the room with me, but it seems as though her mind is off somewhere else. Or maybe I'm just imagining it. "Sometimes you have to make the hardest choice of them all – sometimes killing is the thing that keeps you alive."

"Is that what you've been telling yourself for the past two years? That it's all just _okay_?" I ask, not with disdain as I might have before, but just genuine curiosity.

Not saying anything for a moment, Lilly absentmindedly fiddles with the bottom of her jacket. Her coldness is still present and very much visible, but I can tell that two years on her own has changed her. She's a lot more reserved, and she's not quite as prone to huge outbreaks of emotion as I remember she'd have at the motor-inn.

She's still pissed a lot of the time, but the flame's not nearly as big inside of her. She's been burned out a little bit, and I can't help but feel a little bit sad. Some of her personality has died in her time away from us.

"You were right about Ben," I admit, knowing that she'd lift her head up at that. "He was the one giving the bandits those supplies."

"I know," she says simply, surprising me.

"Really? You weren't just – "

"Acting paranoid? No, not that time," she says with a slight smirk, making me even more fascinated by this person. Lilly Caul is a strange woman, indeed. "I could tell by his scared, little face – he fucked up, and he damn well knew it."

"And Carley?"

"Not this again…" Lilly sighs, running a hand over her tired face. "She was just so hell-bent on defending him – I thought they must've been screwing us together. We had a good set-up there, Clem. It wasn't the best, but it kept us safe. If that cowardly fuck had just told one of us about the bandits, then none of that would've happened. Well, probably."

"Duck got bitten during the attack," I explain sadly, reminded of my old friend. "Kenny and Katjaa took him into the woods to say their goodbyes, but Katjaa couldn't handle it. She killed herself right in front of Kenny, and Lee was forced to shoot Duck. He was never the same after that…"

Closing her eyes, Lilly makes no further comment on Kenny; as if just hearing his name sparks painful memories and feelings of hatred. Everyone at the motor-inn knew how much the two of them despised each other, and I always used to feel bad that Lee was stuck in the middle of it.

"I miss Lee," I suddenly blurt out solemnly, frowning as I pull out the picture of him. "I took this from the pharmacy when he wasn't looking, and it never felt right to throw it away."

"He was something alright," Lilly nods wistfully, probably wishing that she hadn't been on his ass as much as she was.

"I owe everything to Lee," I quietly comment; closing my eyes as I huff out a sigh, "and how do I repay him? By getting him and almost everyone else killed."

"Don't start that shit," Lilly warns, giving me a stern look. "The more you beat yourself up over the past, the harder it is to keep on going. Trust me; I've been there before…"

There she goes again: isolating herself. Lilly keeps on thinking that she's the example of what _not to do_, and then she pushes those closest to her away from her. And then the cycle starts over again. No wonder she's so lonely all the time.

"Were you really by yourself for that whole time?" I ask curiously, wanting to know a little bit more about her… you know, other than the fact that she can be a stone-hearted killer at one point and a caring, focused person the next.

Nodding slowly, Lilly simply explains that she drove back to the motor-inn, stayed there for a couple of nights and then went up to Warner Robbins.

"Once the RV tanked, I pretty much just walked up north. I made my way over to Tennessee, but it was probably worse there than in Georgia," she shakes her head, not going into too much detail. "Ran into a couple of groups in Nashville, but ultimately I just decided to pack up and leave. Let's just call it a conflict of interests and leave it at that."

"You fought with them, then."

"Leave it at that," Lilly repeats, stretching out her back without causing too much strain on her wound. "I found some car on the side of the road that had about half a tank of gas left, so I came east to North Carolina and never looked back. I've been here ever since."

After a few seconds of silence, I rub my tired eyes and yawn softly, indicating that I'm more than ready for a solid sleep.

"I guess we're staying here for the time being," I comment, using my bag as a pillow while I rest my head against it. "Jane's gonna be pissed."

"To hell with what Jane thinks," Lilly says simply, closing her eyes and resting her head uncomfortably against a box. She doesn't seem to mind though – I bet she's had to do that on more than one occasion.

Chuckling to myself slightly, I look over to see that Lilly has opened up one eye to look at me. It seems that I have _half _her attention, anyways.

"You two need to start getting along," I encourage her, folding my arms across my chest. "If we're all gonna be living together, then we need to learn how to work together. We don't want a repeat of what happened last time."

"You still want me around?" Lilly asks, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Well, I haven't kicked you out yet, have I?" I shrug, earning an eye roll from the older lady. "It's funny how things work out, isn't it? I used to be terrified of you, and now we're the only ones left of the motor-inn group."

"I wasn't _that _scary, was I?"

"Don't you remember how mad you got when I accidentally smashed through the glass window with the soccer ball?" I inquire, smirking as she nods her head.

"Fine," she relents, sighing as she recalls that memory, "but to be fair, I think I must've asked you to stop at least a dozen times by that point."

"I was eight! And you told me to F off!"

"I'm pretty sure my exact words were "stop shooting the fucking soccer ball"," she corrects, yawning before closing her eyes once again. "Now keep it down, would ya? We don't want the walkers to burst in."

I hadn't really noticed, but the walkers must have stopped trying to break in a while ago. There's no more banging on the door, but I still don't want to take any chances by heading out at night. We'll just wait until the morning, head back to Howe's and pray that Jane doesn't beat me up for making her worry about me.

And besides, with our luck, the walkers are probably just waiting outside right now as we speak.

As the hours roll by, my sleep is interrupted as Lilly starts tossing and turning in the night; her body shivering from the cold and undoubtedly the nightmare she's having. I groggily open one eye, slightly annoyed that she woke me up, but that annoyance is immediately forgotten as I notice just how much trauma she seems under.

Lilly's muttering unintelligible sentences, but I've got a feeling that it has to do with Larry. She always had a soft spot for the old blowhard, which is understandable I suppose. But even so, it's difficult watching her squirm in fright like that.

As quietly as I can, I scoot over to her side and carefully maneuver myself against her; fully expecting her to wake up and shove me away. When she doesn't, and she actually calms down a little bit, I sigh in relief and rest my head against her shoulder. Lilly even _feels _cold, but that's alright. Deep down, I can tell that she cares about us; about me.

And just like Jane, I know how to get through to her.

…

We headed out at first light the next morning, and true to what I had believed there were some walkers waiting for us outside. They were a lot fewer in number this time around, and were fairly easy to take down, but almost all of my bullets are gone in my pistol.

"Use this," Lilly orders as we make our way through the forest some two hours later.

"That thing kicks like you won't believe!"

"Not if you're stable with it," Lilly simply replies, handing me the weapon as I sling it over my back. This thing is _damn _heavy! How the hell does she carry it around all day?

We crossed the frozen river a while back, and I saw those same breaks in the ice that we fell into back when Arvo was showing us the way to the house. I felt pangs of sadness as I remembered Luke desperately telling me to go back, but what other choice did I have? I wasn't going to risk losing him because I was too scared to walk over and save him!

"Oh shit…" I mumble, bringing me back to my thoughts and leaving me feeling incredibly guilty. Lilly's confused, as to her this would be just another walker, but it means more to me.

Randy, the same father that I had turned away… is eating his wife and son. His glasses are destroyed; smashed to bits on the ground beside him, and the rest of the family is dead alongside him. They must have gotten attacked by walkers after we forced them to leave, and then turned soon afterwards. This is sick and wrong… and it's partly my fault.

I'm partly responsible for their deaths, so it's my job to finish them off.

"I'm sorry…" I murmur, aiming the rifle at Randy's head as he notices me approach. As he walks over towards me, I fire the weapon and end his undead life as the kick sends me flying to the ground. Picking myself up, I watch as Lilly begins looting the bodies.

"They don't look that old," she remarks, pulling out a pistol along with some rounds and extra food rations that they had on them. "Do you think they might've been at a camp around here somewhere?"

"No idea," I lie, knowing full well that they were seeking shelter with us. Glancing over at Gil makes me sick to my stomach the most, as he was the least dangerous one out of them all. But still… we couldn't take any chances with strangers. "Let's just get back to Howe's…"

Still clutching onto her stomach, Lilly scrounges up the remaining useful supplies and stuffs them into my backpack before following me. I really don't feel well now, and it's all thanks to my conscience telling me that I was responsible for their deaths.

"Didn't Jane mention having alcohol somewhere?" Lilly inquires, ducking her head under a tree branch as we push onwards. We're not far from the hardware store any longer.

"Yeah, why?"

"I think we all could sure as hell use some…" she trails off slowly, placing her hands in her jacket pockets as we make our way back onto the main road.

Yeah, we definitely all could use some drinks. Some more than others.


	6. Thanks for the memories

_AN: Just so you know, I don't support underage drinking… especially at Clem's tender age of eleven, but just be warned that this chapter's gonna contain alcohol. Try not to get upset by it. Btw, this chapter's gonna be a lot longer than the other ones, so I hope you guys enjoy it!_

You don't grow to fully appreciate having electricity – with heat, light and all the rest – until you lose it completely. No power means that you're completely on your own, freezing to death as you try to make your way back to basically a giant box called Howe's. Whatever electricity Carver may have somehow got working for the place must have disappeared a while before we returned.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. After all, we're still making our way back.

Growing up, I wasn't ever a needy child. All it took to keep me happy were some crayons and a few stacks of paper. That'd keep me busy for _hours _on end; drawing and colouring whatever my imagination could think of that day. Mom and Dad always used to tell me how I was gonna become the next _Picasso _or something along those lines. I never knew (and still don't know) who they were talking about, but it made me proud nonetheless. While other children my age wanted to watch the next Bugs Bunny cartoon on television, I'd sit up in my treehouse for an entire afternoon and draw to my heart's content.

So in that sense, the lack of power doesn't bother me too much. What's really crappy is the fact that we freeze our asses off in there almost every single night.

Camping's fun when you do it with your family and friends – sitting around a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories. Camping is NOT fun when you have to do it every damn night, having one person stay up to watch for flesh-eating walkers and absolutely _no marshmallows. _

So why am I boring you with all of this?

Well, here's the thing: we're going to have a problem. On the way back Lilly had told me about the food situation, and she hadn't realized when mentioning it to me earlier how the food was going bad. Sure, we've got a lot of it, but it's only going to last for so long, and with no electricity we won't be able to keep it from getting rotten. See where I'm going with this now?

Howe's was a good idea… at the time. But we don't have enough seeds in the greenhouse to keep growing more and more vegetables, and this last batch of baby formula certainly isn't going to last either. I really wish that the hardware store could be a more long-term solution, but I don't think it is anymore. We need to think about moving on… again.

What an awesome conversation that's gonna be! I'm sure Jane will be thrilled to discover that everything we've worked so hard for isn't going to matter once we leave.

But where the hell are we even gonna go?

"Don't fall behind," Lilly calls over her shoulder, "we're nearly there."

Jogging tiredly to catch up to her, I adjust my backpack so that it fits more snugly upon my shoulders.

"What did you pack in here? Rocks?" I ask sarcastically, my back becoming sore with the weight of everything inside.

"You're young and energetic – you can handle carrying some candy bars," she retorts as our eyes become fixed upon the parking lot. "Looks like we made it back alive after all."

"I never doubted us for a second," I say proudly, getting a joking nudge from Lilly. Wow! She's actually being friendly for a change! What are the odds?

"You kept them," she mentions quietly, causing me to look around in confusion.

"Kept what?"

"Those hair ties," she explains, pointing to the back of my head. "Even after all this time."

"Oh… yeah," I reply, not really sure where to go from there. Honestly, I don't think that I've taken these things off in two years, and I hardly even notice that I have them on anymore. After a few seconds, Lilly nods curtly and wanders towards the store with me.

Squinting my eyes, I see that Jane is perched up on the roof with a rifle in hand, so I frantically wave my arms around and call out her name to keep her from shooting. As soon as she realizes who we are, she slowly lowers the weapon and disappears back downstairs without another word.

I think we're in trouble.

"What, did you guys take the scenic route or something?" she asks while folding her arms across her chest. "Where the fuck have you been? I've had to take care of the little prince over here all day and into this morning! AJ puked twice! _Twice_, Clem – right onto my shoe and all over the floor. And don't get me started on the crying – "

"Jane!" I interrupt, breaking her out of her little rant. She still seems disappointed in me, which is understandable I suppose. She looks absolutely furious with Lilly, but fortunately for everyone she hasn't said anything yet. "I think you and I need to have a little chat. Can we… head up into the office?"

Noting my pensiveness, Jane quickly nods and beckons for me to come on inside. As soon as I see AJ, I bend down to scoop the little guy up in my arms.

"I missed you, Alvie!" I chirp enthusiastically, giggling as he grabs onto my fingers again. "You know, I still think that I'm the favourite for him."

"I wouldn't doubt it, considering how much he was acting up last night with me," Jane replies snarkily, a faint smirk upon her lips telling me that she's just kidding around. "Come on – the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can start putting more of the food away. It won't move itself."

Biting my lip, I give Lilly a nervous glance as she simply folds her arms and glares at the floor. Maybe this conversation about the Howe's situation should wait a little bit longer. What I'm going to tell her is bad enough as it is, and I don't want to send Jane… over the edge.

Besides, it's not as if we can't last a few more weeks in this safe, reliable store.

…Right?

…

"Holy fucking hell…" Jane whispers, rubbing her hands through her hair tiredly; unable to believe my story. It's quite an elaborate one – especially for having only been gone for a day.

I bounce AJ on my lap as he gurgles to himself softly without a care in the world. Life is so much simpler for him – he doesn't need to worry about any of this walker nonsense yet, or anything about surviving and making difficult choices. I envy him a little bit, actually; that he can go on oblivious to all of this destruction and madness around us. But then I scold myself, reminded that he won't be a baby forever.

And when he finally comes of age when he realizes what's actually going on, he's gonna be sent on a ride straight through hell.

"I should've been there," Jane sighs, slamming her fist onto the desk in irritation. "God damn it… of all the people you could've run into, it just _had _to be those three."

"We handled it, but…" I cut myself off, feeling my gut wrench inside of my body, "it didn't feel right. It's like what you were saying about killing that Russian."

"I just can't believe you had to go through that," she shakes her head; her familiar frown returning to her face as she glances out the window into the store. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who she's looking at. "I don't care what she says – there's no way in hell that she's just doing "inventory". I'm telling you, Clem, something's up with her."

"She saved my ass from Arvo," I explain with a shrug, walking over to the window to see if she's onto something. Lilly's scratching her chin in thought as she gazes restlessly at the supplies, before shaking her head in annoyance and disappearing into the pen. "That's gotta count for something. Besides, don't you think she would've left by now?"

"She could just be waiting for the right moment," Jane argues, any trust in Lilly nonexistent at this point. "And you've seen the way she reacts! Any little thing sets her off, and it's obvious that she's not all there. In the head, I mean."

"You said the same thing about Kenny…"

"Yeah, and look what happened!" Jane affirms, spinning in Carver's office chair to face me. "Look, Clem – we're not friends with Lilly, but we do know what's gonna happen. We've seen it before; this world just does shitty things to certain kinds of people, and I'm telling you Lilly's gonna snap."

"As long as you don't intentionally put them into a mental breakdown," I accuse, frowning as Jane realizes that she's been caught up in one of her faults. Nobody's perfect, but if she's so sure that we're dealing with another Kenny situation, then I need to make sure that I can trust her.

"Clem, we talked about this…"

"Did we?" I reply, watching as she rests her elbows on the desk and puts her head into her hands. "Because I don't think we have! We've been avoiding this conversation for two months now because you don't want to feel guilty about it!"

Cocking her head to the side, Jane gives me the stink eye before turning to give me her full attention.

This is for your own good, Jane.

"I killed my friend for you! I shot Kenny in the chest because I was convinced that he'd lost it; that you losing AJ was just a mistake!" I rant, unloading my inner thoughts onto my friend as she sits there and takes it all in. "But I was wrong… you were so convinced that he was as bad as Carver that you didn't even stop to think about what it would do to me. Kenny had to take more shit and flak than anyone else I knew, me included. And it broke me up inside when I watched him bleed out in that stupid rest stop. But the second I heard AJ in that car… all I wanted to do was to take him and leave."

"Then why didn't you?" Jane asks, probably feeling slightly more ashamed than she was before.

Pausing to regain my composure, I place a hand on the desk and look Jane straight in the eye; not wanting to blow up at her anymore.

"Because I still thought that you could change. You were the only person I had left; the only one left in the world who was still standing with me, and I wanted to believe in you so badly… but I don't know if you've changed that much at all."

There must be a million different things going on at once in Jane's head right now, as she can't seem to come up with any suitable response to my outburst. This is going to pull us farther apart, but I don't care. I'm so sick of pretending like everything is just peachy and squeaky-clean around here.

"We've both still got a long way to go," I admit, not afraid to say that I have my own wrinkles that I need to iron out. "But pushing Lilly away like this is only going to make things worse. It's already like walking on eggshells whenever the two of you are together – can we just _try _to make things work? Please, Jane? If not for me, then for yourself."

"You still haven't given up on me… have you?" Jane asks quietly, looking more like a small, nervous woman than the collected, level-headed one that I usually see.

"Never," I reassure her, glad that we've gotten this out of the way at least. It's been a long time coming, for sure, but at least we've taken the first steps to recovery. "Oh, by the way… where did you say they kept the alcohol?"

Jane raises a knowing eyebrow and stands up; walking out of Carver's (well, I guess it's ours now) office and heading back down the stairs. I'm so glad that he's not around anymore.

"I can almost guarantee you won't like any of it," Jane warns, leading us over to one of the back rooms that I hadn't checked out since moving back into this place.

"Sounds to me like you're saying that I can't handle it!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Jane calls out; disappearing into the room as Lilly suddenly appears out of nowhere.

"Did I miss anything?" she questions, her voice spooking me as I cradle AJ in my arms.

"Not much, just trying to patch things up," I reply solemnly, turning my head towards her with a small frown. "Speaking of which, are you alright now?"

"Better, thanks to you," Lilly says appreciatively, even though it still seems like she's in quite a bit of pain. "What's she up to in there?"

"Booze run," Jane answers as she steps out with four bottles of some kind. I can tell that she still feels uneasy around Lilly, but at least she's trying this time. That conversation must've really struck a chord in her; that maybe she needs to learn from past mistakes. "A forty ounce bottle of gin, a litre bottle of rum, and two bottles of beer for Clem. Which would you rather have? The gin or the rum?"

"I'll go with the rum," Lilly replies, taking the bottle and not meeting eye contact with Jane as she shuts the door behind her.

"This should be more than enough for a night – it'll probably put the both of us on our asses if we're not careful," Jane explains as she turns back towards me with a concerned expression. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, you don't have to, Clem. It's gonna taste like ass."

"Well, I might not get another chance after this," I blurt out, desperately hoping that Jane doesn't read into that more than I want her to. When she doesn't, and her face doesn't change, I mentally sigh and correct myself. "I mean, with the way the world is now, my chances of making it to twenty-one are pretty slim."

"Don't say stuff like that," Lilly reprimands me, shaking her head and wishing that I wasn't so blunt.

Looking between the two of us awkwardly, Jane clears her throats and tells us to head up to the roof. When I ask her if we should go to the pen to build a fire instead, she chuckles a little bit before shaking her head.

"Trust me, you'll be warm enough with some of that stuff in your belly," she explains knowingly, holding the door for us as she gets ready to bring some lawn chairs up top. "Now come on – I'm feeling too sober for my liking."

…..

I was always considered the good kid in my parents' eyes, even though I was the only child they ever had. Didn't usually complain about having to do chores around the house, usually went to bed when I was supposed to, and always did my homework whenever I had any (though first grade never really had much of it). I don't think that I ever got grounded once, and not in a million years would I have ever gotten into trouble at school.

Then the apocalypse happened, and my Mom and Dad have been dead for a little over two years now.

Within the last three months, I've had some moonshine with Nick, a sip of rum with Jane, and shared a cigarette with Bonnie. And now here I am – AJ sleeping in one arm, with a beer in my opposite hand.

I bet Mom, Dad and Lee would be so proud of me.

True to Jane's word of warning, the beer does indeed taste like ass. But I try my best to suck it up and ignore the yucky taste of the liquid as it burns down my throat.

Why the hell do people force themselves to enjoy this shit?

I've barely made it to the halfway point of my bottle, but Lilly and Jane are well on their way to drinking down theirs. Obviously they've got a lot more alcohol than I do, so there's still quite a bit left inside, but I'm starting to see the effects on them. Maybe they can't tolerate it as much as they think they can.

"Fuck it," Jane suddenly says, taking another swig of her gin before setting the bottle back down beside her. "It's… it's gotta be around January now, right guys?"

"Ye-yeah," Lilly nods dramatically, slurring her words slightly as she looks to me for confirmation. I simply smirk at her and try to contain my laughter. Something about seeing the normally stoic Lilly like this is just incredibly hilarious.

"Well," Jane announces, standing up for some reason and slowly walking towards the two of us, "happy fucking New Year, you two! Here's… here's to another year of killing those sons of bitches out there, and trying not to get eaten along the way! FUCK YOU WALKERS! LET'S GET SHIT-FACED!"

"You already are," I point out, putting a finger to my lips to tell her to keep it down a little bit for AJ. Still though, I clank my beer bottle against her gin bottle and do the same for Lilly.

"But you're not," she slurs with a goofy-looking smirk; her eyes becoming blood-shot as the alcohol swims through her body. "How come you ain't drinking much there, Clem?"

"It's gross," I tell her simply, hearing Lilly snort beside me as she finds my response funnier than it actually is. "Are you okay over there, Lilly?"

"Who, me? I'm fine, just fine! Best I've been in a long, fucking while!" she proclaims as she closes her eyes; letting the wind flow through her brown hair. "I can't remember the last time I got this drunk! We definitely couldn't do any of this shit at the motor-inn, eh Clem? Bunch of people with sticks up their asses back there, that's for sure."

Something inside me wants to make a retort about how it was she in fact who reinforced the limited alcohol rule, but I don't want to ruin her fun. Besides, talking about the motor-inn usually brings up bad memories involving her dad, and no good can come of that.

I've got to say – Lilly and Jane seem like they're really enjoying themselves for a change, and it's really nice that they're not tossing insults down each other's throats.

"Oh crap," I suddenly blurt out, standing up and narrowing my eyes as I see a shambling form stumbling towards the front gate, "we've got a dead one down there."

"I'll get the bastard," Jane brushes off, picking up a pistol that we kept up here and sending alarm bells off in my head. Under no circumstances should she be using a firearm when she's drunk – I can only dread the possibilities.

"Jane, let me take care of it, okay?" I tell her, not taking no for an answer as I forcibly remove the pistol from her grasp. "It'd be too dangerous for you right now. Can you guys please just watch AJ while I go take care of the problem?"

"Alright, fine – you win this round, kid," she relents, huffing out a sigh as she sits back in the lawn chair. "You watch yourself down there! Those lurkers are nasty little devils!"

Nodding quickly, I leave the three of them in peace as I book it down the stairs and run towards the front gate. The walker isn't here yet, so I carefully and quietly open the front to finish the thing off before it spots me.

"_We need some music up in here! You got any music around, Jane?" _I hear Lilly ask loudly, hopefully not waking up Alvin Junior in the process. I swear: my words go through the one ear and out the other with those two! Seriously!

The walker seems attracted to the noise though, as I can see him clawing at the wall uselessly in some vain attempt to get at its meal. Who does this walker think it is? Spiderman or something? Pulling out the pistol, I shoot the thing in the head and kill it before anything truly bad happens to us.

"_Score one for Clementine! We should keep track of how many of these things we kill! WOO-HOO!" _Jane shouts, causing me to face-palm as I make my way back inside and close the gate behind me. If we keep this up, every walker within five miles will probably hear us.

Funny, I sounded just like Rebecca just now…

"Okay, I've got one," I hear Jane say to Lilly, and I'm glad to see that they're actually sort of getting along for a change. "Biggest asshole you knew. Ready? Go!"

"Okay, umm… Kenny, I'd say."

"No fucking way! Me too!" Jane exclaims, causing me to look down sadly. It seems they'll never see him the same way that I did… before he started going off the deep end. "Your turn now!"

"What are you guys doing?" I ask, not bothering to hide my annoyance that they didn't listen to my warnings about keeping the noise level down.

Of course, they don't notice this and continue to talk loudly. It sucks being a kid sometimes…

"Just talking about the people we knew – remembering the good ol' days," Lilly explains, beckoning for me to join in. "Alright, how about… hottest guy you knew since all this shit started!"

"I'll probably have to go with Luke," she replies, no real surprise there. "I miss that big lug. He died a little while before you got here, but he was a sweet guy. We almost got caught doing stuff by Clementine over here, actually."

"You did the dirty!" Lilly laughs, causing me to furrow my brow in confusion. Clearly whatever they're talking about is more than just _kissing stuff_, as I had previously believed. But really, right now I don't think I want to know.

"Well come on! Don't hold out on me, girl! Who's your pick?"

"Alright, gimme a sec!" Lilly says, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm… I'd probably have to say Lee. I never said a word about this to _anybody_, but I'd used to get soooooooooo jealous of Carley whenever she and him were together. He was a broad-shouldered, bulky-armed bad boy who turned into this sweet, caring, kind man who always looked out for the group. God damn, did I ever have the hots for him back then…"

Okay, this has definitely crossed the line of my comfort zone. Lee?! Really?! Hearing people talk about my deceased guardian like this… it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I don't like it at all, and I decide to tune out the rest of what she's saying about him.

"Clem?"

Slowly sighing and looking up, I see that Jane is glancing towards me expectantly.

"What about you?" she asks curiously. "Did you ever like-like somebody?"

"Oh, I know exactly who she liked," Lilly says sneakily; a cheeky smile on her face. "Duck! I mean, who else could it have been? I mean, come on, there's no way in hell that you'd like…"

When I feel my cheeks burning up slowly, I hear Lilly chuckle as she takes another drink from her bottle.

"No fucking way! Ben?! Girl, no offense, but I think you can do better than that! Don't sell yourself to that traitorous punk!"

"He was just a friend!" I retort angrily, folding my arms as Jane joins in on the chuckling as well. "I hate you guys…"

"Oh come on, Clem, lighten up! You know we're just teasing!" Jane insists, patting me on the back. "Besides, it's nothing to be ashamed of! It just means you're growing up, that's all."

"I'm still acting more mature than you two!"

"Well, I guess somebody's gotta be the responsible one around here," Jane nods her head, pointing to Lilly with her bottle, "'cause it sure as hell ain't her! I know you're waiting on one of us to take it easy, so you can take off with our stuff! You ain't… you ain't fooling me!"

"Hey! Fuck you!" Lilly slurs, looking pissed off as she gives Jane the finger and sips more of her rum. "I'll scrap you right here, you little shit! I fight better when I'm shit-faced!"

"Jane, we talked about this…" I try to remind her, not liking where this is going right now. Unfortunately, she ignores me and shrugs me off like a mosquito.

"No! I can say… what I wanna! Freedom of speech, and all that horse shit…" she argues, her eyes glazed as she too drinks another sip. "You're just a lonely, stuck-up bitch who nobody likes! Your friends are all gone, and the only reason Clem here let you into this store was 'cause she felt sorry for you!"

"You take that back, you lying little bitch!" Lilly yells, stumbling towards her and punching her in the side of the head. The brawl's on.

"Guys! That's enough! Stop it!" I try to calm them down to no avail, watching as the two of them lazily throw fists at each other. Jane knees Lilly hard in the stomach (right where she got shot), and Lilly screams in pure agony as she clutches her wound. Seeing an opening, Jane carelessly shoves her closer to the edge of the roof, and I shriek in fright as she starts to fall over.

I won't let her become another Reggie!

Thankfully for her, Lilly somehow manages to hold onto the ledge with one hand; clearly not noticing the danger that she's facing. When I call her name, Lilly looks up towards me and smiles… yes, you heard right.

"Oh hey, Clem! Whassup?" she asks dumbly; her fingers just barely supporting her.

"Jesus, Jane!" I yell at her, even though she's since sit back down in the lawn chair and looks as though she's ready to doze off. I'm about ready to smack her across the face with the pistol. "Lilly, you need to grab my hand, okay? Can you do that for me?"

"Alright, alright…" she agrees, swinging her arm upwards as I try my best to pull her up. There's quite a weight difference between us, so it's not the easiest task in the world, but the fear of her falling to her death stirs me onwards. With bated breaths I finally pull the woman up safely to the roof; out of harm's way.

"Oh… my god…" I wheeze out, looking up at the stars and cursing both of their names. "Jane… Lilly… you two are so dead in the morning, do you hear me?! Guys?"

Sure enough, the both of them have passed out on the roof, so I decide to scoop AJ up and head back downstairs before I _really _lose my temper. This night wasn't the absolute worst, but that last heated fight they just had really makes me question if I'm doing the right thing staying here. Is all of this really worth it? Is the fighting just gonna get worse instead of better?

And most importantly… is it safe for AJ to be around the two of them?

These thoughts and more circle around in my head as I lay him in one of the makeshift cribs; rubbing his head softly as I tiredly bid him goodnight. This definitely isn't ideal, and certainly not what Rebecca and Alvin would've wanted for him, but I don't know what else I can do.

I'm eleven years old for crying out loud! I shouldn't have to worry about raising a child already, or dealing with walkers, or having to ration my food and supplies, or watching as all of my friends and family slowly get taken away from me! This is all so unfair! I'm so tired of the same crap every single day! AND I AM SO GOD-DAMN ANGRY!

After about ten minutes, I'm sitting inside the pen in front of a low fire that I've created for myself. There's no way that I'm going to be able to fall asleep just yet, even if I really wanted to. I'm _pissed, _and I'm sad, and I'm just so emotionally drained. It's just like Nick had told me – it's never going to stop. We're just gonna lose more people; going place to place in the hopes of finding some other location to hole ourselves up in. Would somebody mind telling me what the point is anymore?

Looking down at my sleeve, I glare intensely at the blue fabric. Bonnie gave me this ugly jacket, and now she's gone. She betrayed us and died.

This picture of Duck, Katjaa and Kenny? They're all dead, too. Every one of them.

The photo of Lee that I still always keep close to my heart? What a load of bull – he's dead, and he's never coming back.

Nick's stupid watch that I totally forgot to give back? I toss that stupid thing over the fence and hear it smash into pieces on the asphalt. Good riddance, too! You and the rest of the cabin group are all dead, and I'm left alone with two nut jobs who almost tore each other to pieces!

Tearing off the jacket angrily, I groan in frustration as I fail to rip the stupid thing in half. I don't give a damn how chilly I get – this stupid, ugly ski jacket can burn! I toss it into the fire and watch as it gets engulfed in flame, along with my dumb picture of Kenny's family and that photo of Lee. Holding onto memories has given me nothing but grief, so I've decided just to not hold onto any mementoes at all!

AND THIS STUPID, FRICKIN' HAT! I DON'T NEED IT ANYMORE! I DON'T… I… I…

My hand shakes as my fire-laced eyes scan the object in my hands. That letter 'D' is still very much engraved on top, and that awful blood stain is still forever stamped on the lower part of it.

…_Lee's _blood stain.

My knees crash to the floor as I sob uncontrollably. I can't get rid of this hat – not now, and not ever. I'll carry it with me until the day I die. This hat represents everything that I am, and everyone who loved me unconditionally.

I clutch the object tightly to my chest and never want to let it go under any circumstances.

I am Clementine, and I've never felt so alone.

_AN: …screw it. I'm not giving up on this story just yet. I know that I had told you guys that I wasn't planning on making this story that long, but I want to keep going. I just need to think up of some ideas to get inspired. _

_I'm not going to just say that this fic is completed and call it quits right here, since I don't want to mess up the flow that I've got going with this thing. So consider this the end of part one, or book one or whatever the heck you wanna call it. But I'll keep posting chapters in here once I think of some good stuff._

_I just wanted to thank you guys for all the reviews and absolutely amazing feedback you've given for this story. Up until the last chapter before this, I was at 42 reviews, which is so unreal. Thank you so much, and I hope the next part keeps you just as interested as the first :) Until then, peace out guys!_

_Leafs Nation_


	7. Group therapy

_AN: Okay, so here's the next part for this. Occasionally, I find some good songs that I think would fit well with the overall theme of the Walking Dead – whether it be the show or the game. So, my favourite people, the song I've found is called "Blood on my Name" by… I think it's the Wright Brothers or something, I'm not sure. Either way, give a listen if you're interested – it's got that southern vibe to it and it sounds really cool!_

"_I ALREADY TOLD YOU NO! NOW GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE GATE!" _I hear Lilly yell out, frightening AJ a little bit as he squirms in my arms. Glancing down at the baby boy, I frown as his eyes grow increasingly terrified. If people keep this up, then AJ's going to have trauma for quite a while.

"_DROP THAT! DON'T! DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" _she bellows as I lean back and sigh. Another day, another person turned away. It was a unanimous decision a while back that we wouldn't take in any strangers to Howe's, and so far the results have been less than spectacular. We've had to turn away two families, an older couple and three others who were just on their own. Lilly's much better at doing that sort of thing than I am, and so is Jane, so I've been fortunate enough to just look after AJ while it happens.

I'm out in the pen right now; with nothing really to do and not much to say. It's been three days since that whole… incident with the bonfire… and I haven't really spoken much to either of my companions. When asked about what happened to my jacket, I simply tell them that I ripped it by accident when they had their little drunken episode. I sent the charred remains of it flying in the air; glaring at the ashes and muttering "good riddance" before either of them could tell what had actually happened.

My little tirade went unnoticed, thankfully, since the two of them were both passed out at the time. But I can't stop thinking about it… how bitter and hateful I let myself become. I'll never forget that feeling of desperation as I watched everything I held dear bun in front of my eyes; how broken I felt when I picked myself up off the ground and snuggled with AJ, who was my one source of comfort left in this cruel, dark world. No matter what happens, this boy needs to live. I can't give him the life he'll want – not with both of his parents dead and with him living in the apocalypse.

But I'll be _damned _if I don't give him the tools he needs to survive out here. That's the most important thing that I can do for him – keep him safe and protected, no matter what.

As the sound of a rifle goes off, my heart races for just a moment until I hear the yelling start up again.

"_What the fuck was that?! I was handling it just fine on my own!" _Lilly hisses violently.

"_Like hell you were," _Jane replies snarkily, _"That bastard was gonna pull a gun on you! The least you can do is show some gratitude for a fucking change!"_

Rubbing my temples tiredly, I groan as the arguing once again has started up between the two of them. Of course, neither person remembers the drunken fight that they had before, which is a good thing since I'm pretty sure that it'd get really dangerous really quickly. But the constant fighting is getting us nowhere, and I'm not going to get into the middle of it this time.

No, they can sort their problems out themselves this time. I'm not babysitting them anymore.

"I can't believe the nerve of that…" Lilly stops reluctantly as she notices Alvie and I sitting calmly on one of the wooden bed frames out in the pen; kicking a wall in frustration instead. "How do you put up with her?!"

"The same way I do with you," I bite back, not showing any emotion as I look out the gated fence. "I ignore you when you get all pissy."

"Ha ha, you're so hilarious," Lilly rolls her eyes, deciding to reinforce the fence as I place AJ down in his little box.

"I wasn't really joking," I comment, grabbing a box of nails and handing some over to her. "You two are acting like a bunch of babies… no offence, AJ."

"You know how she pushes my –"

"I don't want to hear it, Lilly," I interrupt, stopping her as I hold the board in place. "If you two don't start getting along, then this whole thing's gonna fall apart. And I'm not letting either of you two put AJ's life at risk because of it – I'm telling you that now."

"Then what do you suggest I do, advice guru?" Lilly asks as she hammers in one of the nails and wincing as she hits her thumb.

"Stay out of each other's way when you can," I tell her honestly, already contradicting myself when I said that I wouldn't get involved. "Or sit down and chat it out – tell her what you don't like about how things are done, and try to reach a compromise. If that doesn't work, then… I don't know. Try sucking it up or something – it's just the way it's got to be."

"My dad used to tell me the same thing," she remarks a little sadly, but quickly shaking off any emotion as she asks for another nail. "He used to push me all the time; said it was for my own good, that no daughter of his was going to be a whiny princess. He taught me how to shoot a gun around the same age as you… I was always afraid of the damn thing."

"And now you're a marksman."

"I'm not that good, Clem," she admits, and I'm about to retort when she stops me. "But… I'm starting to feel better around here. I think you're about the whole reason why, so… thanks. I know that I can be a bitch sometimes, but – "

"Stop it," I shake my head, not wanting to hear Lilly beat herself up again. "We're lucky to have you around – I'd be dead if you hadn't done what you did in the church."

Smiling a little bit, Lilly shrugs it off as nothing before continuing to work.

"…but you do need to try harder with Jane."

"Why does this feel like the motor-inn all over again?"

…..

"Is all of this really necessary?" Jane complains, folding her arms across her chest as I make her sit in one of the office chairs.

"Yep," I reply simply; sitting in the big chair as Lilly shows up in the doorway. "The only way we can make this work is if we lay down some ground rules, and hopefully start you two on getting along with each other. AJ can't take any more of your guys' fighting, and frankly neither can I."

"He's a baby! He can't say anything!" Lilly retorts, shooting Jane a glare as I point to the empty seat beside her. This is _my _house now, fools!

"Take a seat, and then we'll start."

"Are you the big boss now or something?" Jane jokes, chuckling as I rest my hands behind my head. "All you need is a cigar and you'd fit the role perfectly!"

"I'm here to make you an offer you can't refuse," I try joining in on the fun, sporting a fake Italian accent from some movie that I can't remember the name of. Was it… the Grandmother or something? Whatever, it's not important. "Jane, we'll start with you. You tell me some of your problems, and I'll write them down on this piece of paper."

"Umm, not to kill the moment or anything," Lilly interrupts, raising a hand pensively, "but shouldn't someone be on watch? I mean, what if someone tries to break in?"

"We'll be fine – don't try to weasel your way out of this, Lilly!" I cut in, picking up the pen and beginning to put my limited writing skills to the test. Grade one doesn't exactly qualify me as a professional writer. "Now… what's your problem, Jane?"

Smirking to let her know that I'm just teasing, Jane rolls her eyes and turns away from Lilly; huffing out a sigh as she shakes her head.

"This is so fucking dumb," she says bitterly, "it feels like I'm in a god-damn couples' therapy session! What makes you think that I'll ever get Queen Bitch over here to work with me?"

"Well, you certainly won't with that attitude…" I murmur, but Lilly is already getting ready to go off on another tangent.

"Queen Bitch, eh? Now _that's _creative. Did you think of that one all by yourself, or did you need Clem here to come up with it for you since your brain's so small?" she taunts, wearing a smirk that's enough to drive even the most neutral party insane.

"GUYS!" I interrupt, slamming my tiny fist onto the table in order to get their attention. When that works (surprisingly enough), I click the pen open again and beckon for Jane to proceed. "This is serious, you two. Can you please just try not to rip each other's heads off over the next few minutes? Or at least _pretend _that you like each other? We need to start acting like we actually care."

"That's the point though! She doesn't care!" Jane barks, giving me a weird look when I start writing the stuff she says. "Lilly couldn't give half a rat's ass about this place, or us! I've tried talking to her peacefully, but all she does is… is…"

"Bitch?" I conclude, not liking to use that derogatory word at all.

"Exactly!" Jane exclaims, lifting her hands up to emphasize her point. All it really does is piss Lilly off more. "We've both seen her snooping around the store, checking over our supplies when we've told her not to several times. And… it's driving me crazy just thinking about it! I can't shake the feeling that she's just gonna take off with our load!"

"You're talking as if I'm not even here," Lilly remarks, frowning as she gazes at the floor.

"How about we let you talk now?" I suggest, making a separate section for Lilly's opinions on Jane. "What issues do you need to sort out?"

When she doesn't move her head even an inch, I sigh tiredly and rub the bridge of my nose. I don't want this to take very long, since it's my turn tonight to make dinner for everyone.

"Come on, Lilly," I encourage, "get the truth off your chest. It'll help you out… I think."

"You really want to know what I think?" she asks suddenly, gazing hard at me as she too folds her arms. Her body language gives off the impression of going to war or something – not a good sign. "Jane, you're constantly on my ass about _everything_ _that fucking moves! _You haven't trusted me since I got here, and whenever I try to help out you always give me a hard time about it. And… you fucking snore too much!"

"You're so full of shit!" Jane tries to argue back, but snorts as she tries her best to be angry. Once she starts giggling, then it turns into a frenzy of chuckles. "You… ha ha! You never save me the last piece of dessert at dinner time!"

"Oh god…" Lilly wheezes, trying to wipe away the tears from laughing so hard. "And Clem… you're too bossy! And I know for a fact that you sneak one of those candy bars with you before bed almost every night."

"Hey, this is supposed to be about you two! Not me!" I giggle, chucking the pen uselessly and giving up on this whole paper thing. Maybe all we needed to see eye to eye was a little bit of time to just have fun for a change. Life gets boring when you're so serious all the time.

I have to admit, this is helping me feel a lot better since that whole fire pit incident three nights ago.

"Alright, well how about we come up with some solutions?" I suggest after having calmed down a little bit. The situation seems a lot less tense than it did before. "So Jane… how about you try and not bug Lilly as much about how she does her work? She hasn't done anything for us to hold against her, so can you please try to cut her some slack?"

"…Fine," she sighs, leaning back in the chair with her eyes tilted upwards to avoid Lilly's gaze. "Doesn't mean I'll like it, though."

"You don't have to," I remark before turning to Lilly. "And Lilly? Can you try to not scout out the rations so much? I know that you like to keep track of stuff like this, but we can handle it just fine. You don't need to worry."

"Actually, we do," Lilly insinuates, turning in her chair to speak directly to Jane. "And if you won't say something about it, then I will. What better time than at a group meeting?"

"Lilly, please don't…" I beg, widening my eyes as Jane glances my way.

"What's she on about?" she asks suspiciously, eyeing me wearily as she demands an explanation.

Sighing irritably, I glare at Lilly while holding my hat with both of my hands. This was supposed to wait until the food situation actually _started becoming _a problem, not right now! This isn't going to fly well with Jane, I can tell.

"Half of all that food you guys have got here? It's going rotten," she explains briskly. "That's all the resources we have left, and this place is dry. Clem and I barely made it out of that shanty town alive, and that was just all so that we could empty a fucking vending machine. Those things don't grow out of the ground, you know!"

"What are you saying then?" Jane asks, narrowing her gaze as she stares intently at Lilly.

"We leave – I don't wanna push our luck here," Lilly replies flatly, not seeing any other choices. "This place isn't going to last forever – nothing ever does, not anymore. It happened at the motor-inn, and it's gonna happen here. Whether it's bandits or walkers… who cares? Either way, three people and a baby aren't going to be able to defend a big-ass place like this for much longer. What's the point of staying?"

"There's a shit-ton of reasons for staying!" Jane argues, the intensity in their voices picking up again. Well, it was nice while it lasted. "We've got more than enough protection from the elements, plus we have our guns if things go south. Even if some of the food goes bad, then so what? I've checked the rations, and they should be able to last us for years at least!"

"Yeah, if your idea of one cracker per day is your definition of satisfying…" Lilly bites back sarcastically.

"Yeah? And I'm guessing that the greenhouse upstairs counts for nothing then, right?" Jane spits, pointing upwards with her index finger. "We just got this place a little while ago, and now you want to just pack up and leave? This is the best area we've got – there's nothing else out there besides fucking trees and hills! Are you both in on this?"

Feeling that the question is directed at me, I feel scrutinized under the stares of both Lilly and Jane. Whatever I decide now could very well be the factor of whether we're leaving or not. Why does it always come down to the wire like this?

"I…"

My answer is interrupted as the three of us hear the distant sounds of… groaning. Instantly widening our eyes, the three of us drop our conversation as we sprint over to a window and look outwards towards the parking lot.

Great… that's just awesome. The herd is back in full force – and here I was thinking that it had truly run off for good.

"Jesus Christ…" Lilly mumbles, rubbing a hand through her hair in disbelief as she looks at the oncoming traffic. "There's gotta be hundreds of them out there…"

"If we stay quiet, then they probably won't come near us," Jane advises, glaring as they stumble their way forward like a massive tidal wave. "They don't know we're here, so as long as we keep a low profile, we should be safe. The fences are secure, so they should be able to hold them off. And if it comes down to it, then we've got our guns and can make a stand right here."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Lilly angrily hisses, gesturing to the herd in dramatic fashion. "We can't take them all on ourselves! We need to leave right now – forget about your damn pride and just listen to me for a fucking change, Jane! This place is gonna fall at any moment!"

"We've been through this before, dumbass! And that was with people shooting at us from the roof! Right Clem?" Jane asks, but I'm too preoccupied to give her much of a response. "Look, just keep your fucking head down and you'll be fine. This'll pass, and we won't have to go anywhere."

"…Which one of you was supposed to watch AJ?" I ask quietly, widening my eyes as the both of them look at each other in shock. Before either side can start pointing fingers, I gasp and put a hand over my mouth. "You two left him downstairs?! He's gonna get eaten alive!"

"They're… they're trying to break in…" Lilly murmurs as all three of us start hearing little Alvie's cries. "Fuck! He's gonna bring them right on top of us!"

"Downstairs – hurry!" Jane orders as we book it out of the office and take two steps at a time down the stairs.

If anything happens to Alvin Junior, there'll be hell to pay.

…by all three of us, most likely.


	8. This is how I let you down

"_WAAAAHHHHH!" _cries AJ as the three of us follow the sound of his wails. Once we get down the stairs, I immediately book it into the staff room and scoop him up in my arms; trying to shush and comfort the child while also hiding from the walkers seen in the window.

"Come on, Alvie… it's alright – please stay quiet…" I whisper, gently rocking him up and down in a last-ditch effort to calm him down. But it's no use – AJ knows that there's something scary outside, and he won't quiet down no matter how much I beg.

And if _I _can't get him settled, then nobody here can.

"Clem, you need to shut that kid up!" Lilly hisses with her back hugging the wall. "He's gonna get us killed!"

"Well you're not helping things!" I shoot back quietly, watching as Jane takes her knife out of its holster. "I can't do anything about this! He's too scared!"

"Fuck…" Jane murmurs, frowning as the walkers start banging on the glass. "We need to keep them from getting in here! Lilly, help me block the door! Clem, if those walkers smash the window, you shoot them before they climb inside, got it?"

"Yeah…" I reply nervously, rubbing circles along AJ's back. Damn it! This is the problem with having babies in the apocalypse, but it's not his fault though. All babies cry, no matter what you do.

"Put your back into it!" Jane orders as the two women move one of the desks and block the emergency exit just as the walkers start banging against it. Good thing that these things are so stupid; otherwise we'd be in a boat-load of more trouble.

Panic starts setting in momentarily, as a huge group of walkers parade outside and desperately try to break into the staff room. In case you're wondering, this isn't the same place that we normally sleep in – as that has four concrete walls to enjoy. But this is the second staff room, and we thought it'd be safer for us to sleep in the other room in case… something like this should happen.

Yeah, what are the odds?

"That's not gonna hold them forever!" Lilly yells, grinding her teeth together as she and Jane hold their weight against the desk. "We need to get out of here now!"

"NO! We can deal with this!" Jane replies stubbornly, and for once I actually agree with Lilly on something. There's no way that we'll survive like this!

"Look around you, Jane! We're surrounded!" Lilly points out, groaning as AJ's crying escalates even further. "God damn it, Clem! Quiet him down!"

"You wanna take him?!" I snap, holding the baby out to her as he flails about in my arms. "This isn't easy, Lilly! I'm trying my best here, and he gets all frazzled when he's around you!"

"Well then… fuck…" she cuts off, shaking her head as she stares at the floor. Jane's too preoccupied with keeping the beasts out, but I know that look. That's the look of Lilly scheming about something.

"What is it?" I ask, cringing as a crack in the window frame starts to form.

Lilly glances my way with a look of sadness, regret and nervousness; as if she's about to say something that I'll most likely totally hate her for it. But Lilly's a strong woman, and she's been through more than most people I can say.

"We might need to… leave the kid behind."

"Hell no!" I immediately retort, glaring intensely as she even has the guts to say such a horrible thing. "What's wrong with you?! We can't just leave a baby to the walkers!"

"Look at him, Clem! We can't calm him down, and he's gonna get us all killed!" she points out; a crazed look starting to form in her eyes. "You can't let him drag us all down…"

"So you're willing to leave a freaking _baby _as _live bait?!_" I cut in, shuffling backwards in case Lilly tries anything. "What if it was you?!"

"Well, it's not me! And if we stay here any longer then none of this will fucking matter! Jane! We need to leave!"

Biting her lip, Jane looks over at AJ for a moment before sighing and relenting. She leaps off the side of the desk and motions for us to follow her.

I make sure to stay at least five feet away from Lilly at all times… but why do I get the feeling that both of them think this is right?

"Out to the workshops, let's go!" Jane tells us as she banks a right but skids to a halt as we come face to face with a handful of walkers. "Shit! Back, back! Get your gun ready!"

"How did they get inside already?!" I question, yanking out a pistol from my back pocket but accidentally dropping AJ on the floor. His crying only increases as his fragile, little noggin hits the floor. "Oh no! AJ, I'm so sorry!"

"Don't fucking apologize! We need to move!" Lilly forcefully yells, picking me up by the collar as I just barely manage to scoop the little guy up into my arms. Okay, either Lilly really cares about my safety, or she's just become the most cold-hearted asshole that I've met in… a couple of months. Carver's still probably ahead of her in that department.

"Where do we go?" I ask fearfully, shooting a walker in the head before it can sneak up on Jane. Nodding in appreciation, Jane looks left and right before telling us to head into the storage area. There's not a whole lot of useful stuff in there, which is why the door to it mostly stayed closed. But the alcohol is in one of the side doors, and this place might just give us our escape route.

But why does it have to be so damn dark?

"Stay close, and try to keep him quiet," Jane instructs, and I roll my eyes as AJ continues to cry uncontrollably. I swear, this guy's packing some lungs on his little body. "Fuck sakes… they're gonna destroy everything we worked for!"

"Do you know your way around here?" Lilly asks, doubt etched into her voice as the moans of walkers get closer.

"There's a first time for everything," Jane replies simply, meaning no.

Great.

This place smells really musty, and there isn't a whole lot of insulation in here, so I shiver as the wind seeps through my sweatshirt. Poor planning on my part, really, but I had my reasons. There are massive shelves that stack up high, and as I gaze up to the skylight, the memory comes back to me.

"I've been in here before," I comment, reminded of taking two of the radios without Tavia noticing anything. I wonder what ever became of her? "We could climb up on some of those shelves to get to the roof, but we'd probably be stuck up there."

"Any other suggestions then?" Lilly asks as I look down the aisle.

"No, that's good actually," Jane says, scratching her chin in thought. This is a lot like the time that she and I tried rescuing Luke and Sarah from that motor-home. It seems like such a long time ago now though.

I also specifically remember how convinced Jane was that we should leave Sarah behind then, too. Maybe Lilly and Jane have more in common than they think… unfortunately.

"Whatever we're gonna do, it's gotta be now!" Lilly says urgently, turning around and shooting her rifle into the brains of a couple walkers. "That fucking kid's a beacon for these guys!"

"Clem, you first," Jane ushers, bending on one knee so that she can give me a boost. As I step on her hand and she lifts me up, I struggle to juggle the baby as well as myself, but somehow I manage. Placing AJ onto one of the shelves carefully, I swing the rest of my body upwards and pull myself up to safety.

"Now you guys!" I encourage, motioning with my hand as they look onwards. "Give me your hand quickly! They're coming straight for you guys!"

"I'll cover you! Get up there!" Jane shouts, shooting her pistol at more of the encroaching walkers. Lilly places a foot on the bottom shelf to give her a better height advantage, and she too begins her ascent.

However, as she tries climbing to the second shelf, she groans in pain as her stomach wound gets increasingly more painful. The box that her hand was grasping onto comes flying off the shelf along with her, and she goes tumbling down to the shop floor.

"LILLY!" I shriek, worried as she collapses with a _thud_. She seems woozy, but she shakes her head to relieve some of her dizziness. The box seems to be really heavy, as she desperately tries to lift it off of herself to no avail.

"Jane! Help her!" I yell as the horde inches its way into the storage room. It won't be long before they get here, and Jane sure knows it.

Taking one hard, scrutinizing look at Lilly, Jane tells me to leave her before sprinting off into the darkness and out of my sight.

"JANE!" I bellow after her, swearing under my breath as Lilly looks on; completely terrified. She may be one of the toughest people I know, but nobody wants to go out like that.

So, instead of simply following Jane's instructions, I make sure AJ's secure before climbing down quickly.

Instantly, Lilly protests.

"Leave me, Clem!" she retorts as I get a grip on the box. What the hell did they fill this with? "Damn it, can't you just do what I say for once?!"

"Nope," I grunt as I try lifting the box off. Along with the woman's help, we struggle underneath the weight until she finally has an opening to slide out.

Good thing, too, because the walkers are nearly upon us.

"I'm not leaving him!" I shout, knowing fully well that Lilly wants me to do it. "Boost me, or we both die! I'm not letting AJ go!"

Gritting her teeth, Lilly quickly does so as I make my way up the shelves. "Meet us outside!" she yells before disappearing as well. There better be an exit that I didn't know about for those two; otherwise little Alvie and I are officially on our own.

"_Kem! Kem!" _he cries out, reaching his tiny arms towards me as I cradle him in my arms.

A part of me is completely shocked, as I'm almost certain that he's trying to say "Clem", but my happiness is drowned out by fear as the walkers reach upwards to get at us.

"We're gonna be fine, AJ. I've got you buddy, we're gonna be fine," I soothe, even though on the inside I'm absolutely terrified. One misstep and one of us is dead – both if I go down first, since AJ can't take care of himself at this age. But instead of giving in, I strengthen my resolve and place him on the higher shelf; repeating the process until the both of us make our way to the skylight.

"No release latch…" I muse discouragingly, glancing down at the baby with a sad frown. "This is gonna be really loud, Alvie. I'm sorry."

Aiming my pistol to the roof, I fire it as the glass shatters and falls to the floor. I cover AJ to prevent any shards from coming into contact with him as he cries loudly from the scary noise.

"We're not out of the woods yet," I comment, wincing as the next part comes into my mind. "You're probably not gonna like this, but it's gotta be done… and I'm talking to a baby…"

Shaking my head to keep myself from going crazy, I lift AJ up into the air and brace myself in case anything bad happens. My arms are starting to feel a little heavy from all the lifting and climbing, but my adrenaline is keeping me going. With as much might as I can manage, I toss AJ up through the hole in the roof…

…and shriek in fear as he dangles on the ledge.

"AJ!" I yelp, my stomach twisting to knots as half of his body leans dangerously off the ledge of the skylight. He's not moving yet, so I've got a little bit of time before he goes _kersplat. _"Hang on, buddy! Aunt Clementine's coming!"

With a couple of jumps, I grasp onto the edge of the skylight; careful to avoid cutting open my hands on the glass shards. I gasp in fear as I hear something cracking, so I quickly pull myself up and scream as a remaining panel of glass underneath AJ starts to break.

Quickly shoving him to the side, I tune out his hurt cries as I start to catch my breath on the roof; leaning my body against a ventilation shaft. This is horseshit – I need and deserve a vacation for this.

"Are you… trying to give me a heart attack?" I wheeze out, turning my head to the small bundle beside me. "Because… if you are… then I think it's working."

His cheeks are becoming increasingly rosy as a result of the chill in the air, and I myself am already starting to shiver a little bit. What's normally a fantastic view from up here is now depressing and frightening, as the walkers have infiltrated Howe's and surrounded us within the parking lot. Peeking off the roof, I'm discouraged at the fact that Jane and Lilly are nowhere to be seen.

But they had to have made it out… they just had to.

AJ's big, wide eyes are exploring every nook and cranny of his surroundings as I walk back over to him. The little guy's incredibly inquisitive for such a young age, and he reminds me a lot of myself a few years back. I was always sticking my nose in my parents' business; always wanting to be in on everything they talked about. I'd usually stop if they got a little annoyed about it, but then I'd just go off exploring something else instead.

"Let's find the others, big guy," I say to him as he stretches his tiny hands out to me. I swear to god, AJ is the cutest thing left in the world… that's not saying much, but still. He'd definitely win the Most Adorable Baby award in a landslide.

I wonder if this is what taking care of a child is supposed to feel like.

With the little bundle of joy in my left arm, I scope out one of those rope things that Jane used to use to drop soil back when Carver was still around, and an idea forms in my head. If I'm careful enough, then I should be able to just lower myself down and be home free for the time being. However, I need to be extra careful – a walker with its legs all scrambled is sitting nearby, and I really don't want AJ to start crying again. As long as I continue to make goofy faces at him, then it shouldn't be much of a problem. Right?

"We're going for a little ride, AJ," I inform the infant who has absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. "Please don't squirm away from me!"

Grasping the rope tightly in on hand, I count to three before jumping off the roof and holding on for dear life. As I had expected, the rope swings us back and forth, but I manage to stabilize us as we come into contact with the wall. Once the swinging starts to die down, I gently lower us to the frozen ground and smile warmly at AJ.

"You're such a good boy, AJ! Yes you are!" I praise, rubbing my nose against his as he giggles at me. Honestly, it sounds more like I'm talking to a dog right now, but that's alright. Both of us are safe and sound. "Now I'm gonna place you down, and I'll deal with our friend over here. Stay quiet, okay?"

He whines as I turn to leave him, but it'll only be for a second. The walker is about ten feet away from him, so I take out the screwdriver Jane gave me (yeah, how'd I fit that into my pocket, too?) and walk over to the undead body. Feeling absolutely no remorse for the creature, I drive the tool into its brain and proceed to cut up the body.

Yeah, you know where I'm going with this.

"This is gonna be a little stinky, okay?" I tell AJ as I carry him over to the disgusting corpse. Rubbing the walker guts all over myself, I shower the little boy with the icky substance as well. Can't take any chances – especially with where I'm going.

Carrying Alvin Junior in one arm and holding my pistol in the other hand, I steel my reserve and gulp as the two of us make our way towards the parking lot.

We're greeted by hundreds of walkers either standing outside of Howe's or trying to make their way inside. It's a party out here, and everyone's invited apparently. Man, woman and monster are out here, and I hold my breath before venturing out into the lot.

_Please don't cry, AJ, _I silently beg, as too much noise will lure them all to us and we'd have absolutely no chance. If Lee could make it through all of this to come and rescue me before, then there's no reason that I can't. Surprisingly enough, AJ's actually being really quiet, but I can't look down at him just yet without breaking my cover.

He's such a sweet, innocent little boy, isn't he?

One walker bumps into me; startling me for a second as I thought for sure that it was going to take a bite out of my shoulder. But fortunately for us, it just keeps on wandering as I walk further and further out of the parking lot. Almost there, little guy! We're so close!

The walkers are more spread out now as their numbers thin the farther away from Howe's that we go, but I cringe as I notice that a big group of them are feasting upon an unlucky soul. He must have gotten nabbed a little while ago, but thankfully he's not someone we know. That means that Jane and Lilly have got to be out here somewhere. I would've heard their shouts for help if they had gotten surrounded.

The rancid stench of death fills my nostrils as I gag and quickly walk out onto the pathway. No walkers have followed me over here, so I jog the rest of the way until I get to where Jane, Rebecca and I had gone to get to Parker's Run.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding, and chuckle at the irony of it all.

"We did it, AJ!" I exclaim quietly, pumping a fist in the air at all we've accomplished in such a little time. "I can't believe that worked! We're… we're safe! We can go find Jane and Lilly, and then we can all just…"

Curiously, I look down at AJ for the first time since I sprayed him with the walker juice. His eyes are closed, but it doesn't look as though he's sleeping. Umm… why is his chest not moving up and down?

"AJ?" I ask worriedly, setting him down on the ground and unwrapping the blanket around the back of his head. He… he can't be… "Come on, Alvie, this isn't funny. Wake up for me, okay?"

Panic starts to swell in as nothing changes with the little guy. I try pushing down on his chest like I saw in one of those commercials for CPR that I saw on TV, but that doesn't help. I try poking him gently in the cheek, lifting him up and then down again, but nothing's working!

Tears of desperation form in my eyes as reality starts to settle in. AJ… he can't be…gone…

"Oh my god…" I wail, clutching his little hands in mine as I pray that he barfs on me or giggles or does _something _to let me know that he's still here with me. "Please… oh god… please, no… NOOOOOOOOOO!"

My first thought for this is that the cold must have gotten to him… but on closer inspection, I realize that the problem was my doing entirely.

AJ licked some of the walker guts off of his face.

His body must have not been able to handle the toxic crap that must have been inside that stuff, so… in a way, I just poisoned him. This is all my fault; I'm totally guilty. I just poisoned a fucking baby.

Cradling the child in my arms, I choke out sobs as my cries echo across the area. I don't care if every walker at Howe's hears me – it'd probably be a justified punishment for me at this point.

Not wanting to see what AJ may become (even if that would happen to him), I stumble along to a nearby tree and set him up against the trunk. All of my happiness has been sucked away; replaced instead by incredible amounts of grief, despair and self-loathing. How the hell could I have let this happen?! To a god-damned _baby _for no less!

Raising the pistol, I feel smaller than I did when I had to shoot Lee over two years ago. That was a horrible experience… but it's nothing to this. It doesn't compare in scope; in magnitude.

Rebecca and Alvin would be ashamed of me. I let them down in the worst possible way.

There are no words to say as I fire the gun. I stand there basking in my crime and misdeeds for at least five minutes until Jane and Lilly suddenly just decide to show up, but I don't acknowledge them.

"Clem…" Jane whispers, going to touch my shoulder but deciding against it when she sees how deflated I am. Lilly kind of just stands to the side, not saying anything as she awkwardly twirls her foot around.

Silently, I slowly trudge away from the grizzly scene and venture down the path without waiting for either of them. Lilly and Jane look at each other nervously before following me along.

What kind of person am I anymore?


	9. Planning Ahead

Guilt eats away at me like a plague; devouring me in its iron grip as I replay that scenario in my head over and over and over again. Nothing that I tell myself makes a dent in this soul-crushing grief, no matter how hard I try. My eyes never leave the ground as we walk forward; shoulders slumped and legs aching. But somehow I keep on moving forward.

Alvin and Rebecca trusted me. They trusted me, and I repay their trust by letting their only child die. If I hadn't put that stupid gunk on his face, then he'd still be here with me. AJ would be gurgling along as I'd carry him with my head held high. Things wouldn't be perfect with all of us out on our own, but this has made things exponentially worse. I'm no better than the walkers.

I don't know just how long we've been walking for, but somehow we've gotten to Parker's Run, and that stupid town across the river. I have no desire to come here, not with all the horrible memories surrounding this place. Three of my friends – Nick, Sarah and Sarita – all died here, and whatever care for me that Kenny may have had died here as well. This is the place where our hopes fell below that deck… God, why did we have to come here?

"We should stop here for the night," Jane grimaces, knowing full well that this isn't exactly ideal. Nowhere is, really, but there's always a more inviting place than this. "We can hole up in the observation deck, and once we're settled we need to figure out a plan. Sound good?"

Neither Lilly nor I answer, so Jane just sighs and leads the way again. We pass by some of the tents that were pitched up earlier, except this time most of them have been torn to shreds. Walkers most likely, but it could've also been a pack of scavengers. Either way, they're long gone now.

Making our way past the picnic tables and down the long pathway to the observation deck, my body gets increasingly tired. All that I want to do now is sleep, just so that I can get away from this reality for a few hours at least.

"Just for tonight though – this place gives me the creeps," Jane adds, noting the rickety staircase and the deck that we caused to collapse the last time. "The gift shop is still open, so we should be pretty secure for now. I'll take first watch…"

"Fine… whatever," Lilly mutters bitterly, still sore after getting that heavy, wooden box dropped on her. The fact that Jane abandoned her like that must've left some scars too, but that's nothing surprising really. It's a well-known fact that the two of them can't stand each other for more than ten seconds at a time.

As for me, I walk into the gift shop, sit down facing the wall, and bring my knees up into the fetal position. I wrap my arms around my stomach to prevent getting too cold, but nothing I do fixes anything.

Lilly's looking at me, I can tell that for sure. Jane's probably outside right now, so she won't be able to see me. However, Lilly's definitely staring at me and wondering what the hell I'm doing.

I wouldn't have the energy to answer her even if I wanted to.

"You need to eat something," Lilly tells me, and I hear the sound of her opening some sort of pack that I never knew she had. "Come on – sitting alone in the dark won't change anything. Get something into your belly."

I close my eyes tighter and try to block out the sound of her voice. I don't need to hear this stuff right now.

"Come on – don't make me drag you over here," Lilly comments, nudging me in the side with her foot. When she does it incessantly at least four times, I groan and try batting her away with a lazy wave of my hand.

Sighing heavily, Lilly somehow manages to roll me over so that I'm facing away from the wall; my eyes giving away my hurt as I angrily look towards the taller woman.

"Please don't turn into one of those angsty teenagers like on television," she says, which just confuses me even more.

"What does that mean?"

"Highly emotional," she explains, unwrapping a granola bar and handing it over to me. "Tends to overcomplicate and exaggerate everything, and blows little things all out of proportion."

"You honestly think that this counts?!" I hiss, reluctantly grabbing the snack and munching on it a little bit. I don't have much of an appetite right now.

"Maybe not," she admits, showing that she at least has a _little bit _of humanity left in her, "but there wasn't anything you could do."

"Don't lecture me on that stuff," I huff out, shaking my head and glaring at the floor.

Taking a cross-legged seat in front of me, Lilly doesn't say much for a time. Instead, she simply studies the small amounts of graffiti on the wall inside – gang symbols and letters which I have no clue what they mean. I reckon that she doesn't either.

"Do you really think that kid had a ghost of a chance living out in a world like this?" Lilly questions suddenly, glancing over at me from the corner of her eye. "So small and vulnerable, not able to defend himself… Do you really think he would've lasted?"

"Yes," I respond immediately but quietly, as if I'm second-guessing myself.

"I'm surprised he even made it this long out here," she tells me, shrugging her shoulders as she sits backwards and leans her head back. "Having a kid out here when everything's so uncertain… that was a dumb idea."

"I know how you felt about him… back at Howe's," I spit with an accusing tone; hostility clouding my voice as I speak. "Guess you got what you wanted after all, didn't you?"

"Clementine…"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't want AJ to die. Say it."

There's the usual fierceness about her whenever she tries winning an argument, but it's all a façade. Deep down, Lilly knows that she was ready to abandon the baby to a herd of hungry, flesh-eating walkers, all so that we could save our own skins. And now that he's gone, she probably thinks there's one less obstacle we have to avoid.

Looking at her right now makes me sick to my stomach, as it reminds me just how cruel and cold-blooded the three of us have become recently.

Jane manipulates me into killing Kenny, helps convince me to keep out strangers that need our help, and almost kills as well as abandons Lilly.

Lilly murders Carley (although I've since let that go), steals the RV and tries to leave AJ behind.

I kill Kenny, Bonnie and (in my opinion) AJ.

Now do you see where this is going? We're all the same person; done horrible things… the worst kinds of things just so that we can stay alive out here. How is it fair to everyone else? Why do we get to keep on living, while so many other good people have died? Lee, Luke, Carley, Katjaa, Duck… those are just a handful of people who I'm almost certain are more forgivable than the three of us.

"We didn't even give him a chance," I remark, rubbing my eyes tiredly. It's been one hell of a day. "AJ's dead… because I was stupid enough to think that putting walker guts on a _baby _was a smart idea. I killed him!"

"There was nothing you could do!"

"NOTHING WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER! THEN HE'D STILL BE HERE!" I scream, letting out the feelings that I've been bottling up over the past few hours. "I failed them… Rebecca trusted me… and I failed her…"

"Clem…" Jane whispers, having come into the gift shop after hearing all the commotion. "Just take it easy, all right? We're gonna get through this shit. It'll just take some time."

My body is shaking, but I flinch as she tries putting an arm around my shoulders. Damn it… I feel as broken as Sarah was back after her dad died. What a bunch of lies – this isn't the same as another person dying. This was _AJ_ – he was our one beacon of hope that we really had left. He was a sign that maybe, just maybe, things could actually get better for a change. I don't have Lee around anymore to comfort me and tell me that things were gonna be alright, so AJ (in his own special way) filled the gap.

Now that he's gone… what the hell are we gonna do?

"And you," Jane snaps, glaring a hole in Lilly, "what the actual fuck is wrong with you? You're the _last _person that's got a right to say anything, after the shit you pulled!"

"Don't forget: we still haven't talked about what you tried to do in the storage room. Who's to say that you won't just up and abandon Clementine when the stakes are down?!" Lilly accuses, standing up to match her height.

Looking her up and down, Jane spits on the ground and shoves her out of her face.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw your sorry ass off this deck?"

"You touch me again, and you won't like where this goes, Jane," Lilly warns, pulling out a pistol and turning the safety off. "Don't think I won't – I've had just about enough of you to last a lifetime."

"I'll take you right fucking now, you stuck-up bitch!" Jane hisses, unsheathing her knife for the second time today.

"Stop… please…" I beg them pathetically, looking up at them with teary eyes. "Haven't enough people died already? We can't kill each other… not again…"

Neither of them want to back down, but Jane's expression softens a little bit. I told her the same thing back at that rest stop up north, and look how well _that _turned out. Glancing back to Lilly, she shakes her head silently.

"You're not worth it," she remarks, putting her weapon away and turning to go back on watch.

"Just give me a reason, Jane…" Lilly states lowly, and for one second Jane freezes and clenches her fists super tightly. Thankfully, however, she only pauses for a moment before continuing to walk out; muttering something about dumping her body in the river or something, I'm not exactly positive.

"Lilly…" I say to her quietly, as I reluctantly get her attention.

"What?"

"Are you going to leave?"

There's a debate swimming within her eyes – it would be so easy to do it now, and it's not like either of us would blame her really. What connection does she have to us anymore? Jane hates her guts, and I'm still angry with her (as well as myself); Lilly's got little to no reason to stay.

Which is why it surprises me when she shakes her head.

"Not this time," she tells me simply, before leaning up against a pillar and keeping to herself. Not expecting to get any more explanation than that, I turn back over onto my side and close my eyes. Most of me doesn't give a damn if she stays or not, and maybe would even prefer that she leave instead. It certainly would make things less hostile around here.

But another part's glad that she's made this decision – I don't want to be abandoned by people anymore. Sometimes leaving is worse than someone dying.

…..

Another nightmare plagues my dreams – that's three this evening, as I've been counting. The details are kind of fuzzy, as most dreams tend to be. But I know that every one of them had to do with AJ, and that somebody was extremely disappointed in me.

Gee, what else is new?

Deciding that I won't fall back asleep any time soon, I roll over and stretch out my aching back. The floor really isn't a comfortable spot to be sleeping on – in fact, I'm starting to miss those crappy, wooden, uncomfortable beds that they made us sleep in when we were placed in the pen. At least it gave your body a little bit of support.

There are two things that I notice as I roll over: firstly that Lilly isn't here, and secondly that Jane's propped up against the wall with some kind of paper in her hands. She's reading it diligently; her eyes glued to the page as she tries to memorize what's on it.

"Jane?" I whisper, bringing her attention to me as she grins slightly.

"Feeling a bit better?" she asks, knowing fully well that my answer will be no. Instead of saying anything too negative though, I simply shrug my shoulders and sit down beside her.

I've always wanted a sister… and I suppose that Jane's as good a one as I'm ever going to get.

"What are you reading?" I ask, glancing over her shoulder to see a whole bunch of states and big cities drawn in various colours.

"Map of the good ol' USA," she remarks jokingly, pointing to some location on the right. "That's us on the east coast here – North Carolina, see? I don't really see the point in staying here anymore, not now that Howe's is gone… Fuckers ruined everything…"

"Maybe we can find something better," I say, looking down at where she was pointing. North Carolina… by the looks of things, we're pretty close to the ocean from here.

"Good to see that your hope hasn't died," she remarks, tipping my hat downwards before scrutinizing the details over this map. "The way I see it, we can either go west or south. North is just suicide, and east is only if you can grow a pair of gills within the next couple of days."

"Why is north such a bad idea though? I mean, what if there actually is somewhere safe?" I ask her, not wanting to push anything since I know how much she doubts such a haven exists. "We don't have to go to Wellington… but what's over here?"

"That's Washington," she explains like a school teacher, but a frown is etched on her face as she says it. "You don't wanna go there, Clem. Remember what I said about that guy trapped underneath the bus? All of those deaths? Washington's overrun – trust me, going to see the White house isn't worth risking your life over. It's a big building. Whoop-de-doo."

"Well… we can't go south."

"Why not?" Jane asks, confused since to any other person that would probably sound like our best option.

"Just… we can't," I tell Jane, practically begging her with my eyes not to take me back to Georgia. I don't think I could handle it again. "And Lilly said that Nashville's a bust."

"That's west of here – shit," she murmurs, the stress starting to get to her. "You don't want south, Lilly doesn't want west, and I don't want north. Well, isn't this just perfect?"

"Where is she anyways?" I inquire, looking around and still not seeing any sign of her. Jane looks in either direction to make sure that nobody's listening before acknowledging my question again.

"Lilly's on watch… we could just go," Jane whispers, which doesn't really surprise me at all. Nobody wants to stay with each other anymore, it seems. "We've survived together before, Clem. Think about it – no more having to worry about what she does next, and you can rest a little easier. You don't owe a damn thing to her, Clementine. You saw how fast she was ready to give up on AJ… you know it'll only be a matter of time before she thinks that we're slowing her down, too."

"It's dangerous out there by ourselves, Jane. We need to keep the group together."

"It's more dangerous keeping her around," Jane acknowledges, "Besides, she's lasted this long on her own, and I'm sure that she can do it again."

"But Lilly doesn't _want_ to, that's the problem," I explain, but now thinking that Jane may have a point. Call me crazy if you want, but Lilly's still in part a dangerous threat. The way she loses her cool is even worse than Jane can get, and it might not be too long until she snaps.

Still though, it wouldn't be right of me to just toss her aside after all that's happened recently. I'd be dead if not for Lilly.

"This isn't the right call, Clem," Jane warns as Lilly approaches us quietly; her face giving away nothing as she walks towards us with her hands in her pockets. "What are you doing out here? You're supposed to be on watch."

"Sun's coming up soon," she responds, gesturing outside with her thumb. "I figured we could make some miles from this place if we start early. I'm thinking Raleigh might be a good place for us to check out before we head north."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who said anything about going fucking north?!" Jane exclaims, holding out the map and placing it flatly on the floor in front of her. "That's the complete _wrong _direction!"

"The walkers could be slower…" I chip in my two cents, earning a disapproving glare from Jane.

"Yeah, if you also enjoy turning into a popsicle! You don't even have a jacket anymore!" she points out correctly, and I glance down at my shirt after having been reminded of that. Right… I wouldn't last very long, would I? "We don't even have a car!"

"Hasn't stopped us before," Lilly comments, placing her hands on her hips. "But I say we vote on it. My bid's on heading up north – like Clem said, the walkers are slower there and we'd have a better shot at safety. Wellington might be out there somewhere. Besides, we can find something for her on the way if we have to."

"It's not ever that easy," Jane steps in, pointing to the mountains that we'd have to cross in order to get to Michigan. "Wellington's a fairy tale, and I'm not gonna waste my time chasing after something that doesn't exist. We should be heading south. We don't need to stay in Georgia, but we can at least try for somewhere warm. Mike used to talk about Texas, maybe that's a possible option."

"_What?! _Did you want to ride a fucking horse or something, cowgirl?" Lilly remarks sarcastically, and I actually find that image pretty funny. I think Jane would look so annoyed if she had to dress up as one of those. "Do you have any idea how farfetched that is?!"

"Yeah, because heading up into the snow is so much better…" Jane spits before turning towards me. "What do you think, Clem?"

"Why don't we try west? That's about halfway between the both of you, isn't it?"

"I've already told you – Tennessee is dead. All you'll find is a one-way ticket to your own death," Lilly says her piece, not liking where this is going.

"But we can at least try!" I protest, pointing to the map. "Aren't there lots of farms out west? My friend Christa always used to tell me to stay away from cities, so maybe we could go to a farm instead?"

"I'm not so sure it's worth the risk," Jane comments, changing her mind as she shakes her head. "We don't have any real idea what's out there… but the both of you know the south, at least a little bit. Georgia's your home, isn't it? If we're careful, then we should be alright."

"This isn't getting anywhere…" Lilly huffs, kicking the shutter to the gift shop in frustration. "Christ… no matter what, you two are gonna vote for each other. I'm done… Do whatever the fuck you guys want."

Jane tries her best to ignore Lilly, instead turning towards me as if I have the final say.

"I'll work with whatever you decide. Just make sure it's safe," she says to me; leaving me with my thoughts and the map as she stands up to leave. However, after thinking about it for a few more seconds, I halt the woman in her tracks.

"Jane, wait," I stop her, pointing to the south on the map. "Are you absolutely positive that Texas is a good idea?"

"Nobody's really sure of anything now, Clem," she replies honestly. "But my gut tells me that that's our best bet."

"…Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes," I say hesitantly, my insides clenching as I realize that we're going to have to go back to Georgia in order to make a shorter distance there. Once Lilly realizes what's going on, she groans and walks out of my field of vision. "Let's hope you're right about this, Jane."

"Well, I'm still alive and kicking, aren't I?" Jane mentions, picking up the spare backpack and motioning for me to come along. "We've got a lot of ground to cover for the next little while. We'll get there though, don't worry."

Sure, she can say that right now – we haven't started travelling yet. But I've got the feeling that this trip isn't going to be nearly as smooth as she thinks it will be.

No matter what, something always goes wrong.

_AN: Okay, so I've got a confession to make – I'm starting to run out of ideas lol. It's very difficult to write what'll happen next without a look at what season three might entail, but I'm going to try my best. Perhaps you can think of this as a sort of "Last of Us" style fic in the sense that the three of them will be travelling quite a bit to get to their destination, but no there won't be a cure. Anyways, hopefully this didn't seem too slow, and I'll start thinking of the next chapter soon! Assignments are cramming up my ass at the moment, but I'll keep trying with this thing._


	10. The house my parents bought

_AN: Okay, just before I start I want to thank everyone in the reviews section – you guys have been wonderful for this, and I truly appreciate the time you've taken to read this thing. It means so much, you have no idea! _

_ALSO, I'd like to personally thank spiderclone, Rayne Arianna Maranochi and kesarkuch for the ideas. You've got me back on track with this thing, and I've finally got a general idea of where I want this story to go. Hopefully you'll like where I'm taking this!_

…..

"_Please _tell me we're almost there, guys?" Jane complains as she stretches her arms up and yawns; getting all of the cracks out of her back as she twists it about. "I'm not so sure that I can handle another bout of open fields and long stretches of road."

"I thought you were the athletic one?" I joke casually, not quite as bummed out as I was over a week ago.

"Back in high school, maybe. But that was a long time ago now."

"Both of you keep it down… we're probably not alone out here…" Lilly mentions, gesturing to a walker that's eating something out of the back seat of a run-down car. You can hear it ripping the flesh apart from something, but I just hope that it was dead before getting eaten. That's one of the worst ways to go.

We've been travelling for close to two weeks now – Lilly, Jane and I. Just as we said we would, the three of us left North Carolina in the dust and travelled south until we got over the Georgia State line. It's been relatively smooth sailing thus far (except for one unfortunate incident of Lilly getting the flu… that slowed us down for a couple of days). My head's held a little bit higher since that whole incident, yet there's always that shroud of guilt planted in the pit of my stomach.

Other than that, however, things are actually starting to look up a little bit. Any walkers that we've come across have been dealt with safely, and the fighting's started to die down a little bit. It's still a bit of a cold war between Jane and Lilly in the sense that they try not to speak to each other, but at least no guns have been drawn. I thought for sure that they'd try to kill each other by now.

"Look there!" Jane calls out after we've passed the walker, pointing to the horizon where we can see some tall buildings towering behind some residential areas. "Is that where we're headed?"

"That's Atlanta, so yes," Lilly chips in, "and not a moment too soon."

"You can say that again," I comment as the straps on my backpack dig into my shoulders. My feet have got blisters on top of blisters, my back has been aching since this morning and my hands have become calloused after long periods of rigorous activity. Yeah, I could use a place to lay low for a little while.

And I know exactly where to go.

"Do you think we could… stop by my old house for a little bit?" I ask, not too keen on the idea of just marching straight through the downtown area at the moment. "It shouldn't be more than an hour to walk there, and there might still be something we can use?"

Jane sees right through me and knows that the only reason I want to go back there is because… well, it's my home. My childhood home, and it means something to me. It's unlikely that we'll ever get the chance to visit Atlanta again, so I want to capitalize on this opportunity.

"That might be a good place to spend the night," Jane agrees as Lilly stops to wait for us impatiently.

"Lead on, then," Lilly remarks tiredly, with the circles under her eyes becoming even more noticeable than usual. Sometimes it doesn't even seem like she's there… in spirit, I mean. It's as if the old feisty, ambitious, quick-to-anger Lilly has been replaced by a robotic, emotionless version of herself.

She's still quite quick to anger, though.

…..

Riviera Street… Marcone Street… Ah, here we are! Ventura Avenue, and my home is just up on the right. _Two stories of wooden magic, _that's what my dad used to call this place. My parents bought it a little while before I was born, and it was really the only home I ever knew.

The paint's already starting to peel off the side after a while of negligence, and the door handle is starting to rust, but other than that my house looks almost untouched.

It's weird though… it's as if I'm a stranger in this place now.

"Looks like this part of the city didn't get messed with too much," Jane comments, walking with her hands in her pockets as I sprint to the side where the iron gate is still intact. It makes a cringe-worthy screeching sound as I push it forwards, and I grin sheepishly as Lilly and Jane walk up behind me.

"Let's bring _all _the walkers to us, why don't we?" Lilly sarcastically says, walking into the backyard as Jane follows in behind. I shut the gate quickly and follow them along.

The grass is at least two feet long now after a couple years'-worth of not cutting it, and the pool has turned dark green… _Sigh… _there's a body floating in the pool…

"I hope that he got here _after _you left," Jane says as I nod sadly. You can hear the flies swerving around the corpse as it decays in the water; a bullet hole protruding from its head.

"Just leave him," I tell the women with a shrug. "There's nothing really we can do about it now."

Lilly makes her way up the deck while Jane walks over to investigate the treehouse, so I follow her over to that stupid, wooden construct.

"I hated this thing," I remark with a short laugh, climbing up the ladder and opening the entrance hatch. Poking my head inside, I sigh in relief when I see that there are only loose stacks of paper sitting on the floor, along with an opened box of crayons. At least there's a sign that nobody's been lurking around this place.

"Jaime used to want one of these when she was growing up," Jane admits with a sad smile. "Our dad tried to build one in the summer, but he barely even knew how to hammer a nail. It never got finished, and Jaime got over trying to play in one constantly. Instead, we had four loose boards hammered together with the pointy end of the nails sticking out for over a year. The thing was a deathtrap."

"Well, I'm not so sure that she was missing out on much," I tell her as memories of the first few days of the outbreak come back to me. Lilly finishes up checking around the deck to come stand with us. "This is where I first met Lee. I was hiding out from walkers in there for two days until he found me."

"That's pretty lucky then," Lilly comments as she places one hand on her hip. I nod in response.

"I'd be dead if it weren't for him," I sigh sadly, shaking my head and turning away from the treehouse. "Anyway, forget about it. The door might still be unlocked if you want to head on inside."

As Lilly goes to open the sliding door, she immediately yelps and steps backwards; pulling out her gun and aiming it shakily inside. Unfazed by this, I walk into my home and try to ignore the foul odour while making my way to the kitchen.

"What the fuck?! That thing scared the shit out of me!" Lilly comments, staring wide-eyed at the deceased body on the floor right near the back carpet. The blood stains are permanently etched into the tiles surrounding it.

"That was my babysitter."

Jane gives me a weird look, but I shrug my shoulders as I place my pack onto the kitchen counter and help Lilly drag the corpse outside. I think that Sandra needs some sunshine for a change – her skin's kind of decayed and rotten a little bit.

Just another normal day in the apocalypse, I suppose.

…..

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" I roar, causing Jane to rush into my room as I kick the closet door angrily. I turn towards her and fold my arms across my chest. "Somebody came in here and jacked all my clothes! They didn't even leave a sweater!"

Once Jane realizes that nothing's on fire or that a walker hasn't climbed in through my wonder, she chuckles places her hand over her face in amusement.

"Only you would get upset about something like that," she jokes with a smirk, shoving my shoulder playfully as she examines my room. Some scavengers (more like _vultures_) barged into my room and had the audacity to take my stuff! Not even a scrap is left in here, and I was totally going to bring out a jacket or something that was too big for me before, but would've fit perfectly now. So much for that, jack asses!

"Yeah?" I challenge, pouting up at her as she continues to find this incredibly hilarious. "Well how would you like it if you found out somebody was looting around in _your _room?"

"I'd probably be pretty pissed… if I actually _had _a room."

"What do you mean?" I ask inquisitively, following Jane into my parents' room as we see Lilly digging around for any potential supplies. There's not a whole lot in here, either, except for an old photo album that I pick up. I leave Dad's old high school yearbook underneath the bed, as well as Mom's doctoral diploma. Thankfully this stuff at least has remained untouched.

"Let's just say that my parents and I had a… _disagreement_… when I was in my senior year."

"You got _kicked out?_"

"Pretty much," Jane shrugs, not going into any more detail as she glances at Lilly before taking a seat on the bed. As for myself, I lean against the wall and start flipping through the pages; letting out shaky breaths as I see my whole family within the album. We look so happy and stress-free… Why can't things just go back to the way they were?

"You've been at that for the last twenty minutes," Jane comments, but I look up to see that it's Lilly she's talking to. "There's nothing left, Lilly. Give it a rest."

"Can't ever be too careful…" she mumbles as Jane studies her for a moment with her head coked to the side.

Then she says something that confuses me and enrages Lilly.

"I think you've got a bit of OCD."

"Fuck you," she spits, not turning around in her quest to find one thing of value left in this house. But this place, like a whole bunch of others, is bone dry. "You're just trying to insult me again, but it won't work. You're so full of shit, Jane!"

"I'm not trying to bug you this time, though! Honest!" she claims, raising her hands in defense even though Lilly's got her back turned towards her. I give her a questioning stare as she catches my glance. "It's when you go over every little detail constantly, or can't leave a room without having everything in perfect order. Things like that."

"I DO NOT HAVE OCD!" Lilly lashes out, rage painted on her face as she walks out of the closet with some kind of brown sweater with cool-looking designs on it. "Here, Clem. I found this in the back corner… figured you should have it."

"It's a poncho," Jane comments as I note the zigzag patterns going across the middle. "Think of it as a big blanket with sleeves. Did your parents ever go to Mexico, Clem?"

"Maybe once when I was little," I respond uncertainly. Scratch that off as another trip my parents went on without me… not that I'm complaining, of course. I mean, the last trip they went on was… _sigh._

I pull the light brown poncho over my head without taking the ball cap off, causing my head to get stuck for a second humorously as I pop out of it. This thing's certainly a lot more comfortable than the ski jacket was, but it smells kind of musty. It's not hard to see why though, what with it being stuck in the closet for over two years.

"Now you're really looking like a tourist," Jane jokes, running her hand along my sleeve as I go to put the album back underneath the bed. As much as I'd like to bring these with me, it just wouldn't be convenient carrying a big, old book around with me all the time. Better to just leave it where it belongs.

"Well, we're not trying to make a fashion statement here. As long as it's warm enough and can't get grabbed too easily," Lilly says sternly, to which I give her a thumbs up to let her know that I'm all set.

"Buzzkill…"

"Anyways," Lilly interrupts, pretending to ignore Jane's comment, "let's head downstairs and eat some grub. I'm starving, and there's a can of peaches in my pack with our name on it. After that, I'll finish searching the ground floor and take first watch."

As the three of us slowly make our way down the stairs, Jane nudges me in the ribs before whispering something to me.

"She's totally got OCD…"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, JANE!"

…..

The next morning, after saying my final goodbyes to the house and in a sense my parents as well, the three of us head back out after not really finding anything useful. So far this trip to Atlanta has been a total bust, but even Lilly admitted that it was nice to be able to sleep in a bed again. A night in a home without power still kicks the crap out of sleeping outside.

The only way out of Atlanta and over to Alabama is to go through the downtown core, which honestly is the very last place we want to go. I never got the chance to see it fully for myself, but Atlanta was one of the first places to fall, and was named a stage nine catastrophe shortly afterwards. Whatever that means.

"Look for a car if you can," Lilly tells us as we tiptoe our way through the congested back alleyways of this dump. "It'd be a hell of a lot easier to travel in one of those."

"You really think that people haven't tried that already? Gee, you sure are a certifiable genius," Jane hisses as I tell the both of them to be quiet. There are walkers loitering out into the main street that would love nothing more than to eat us for breakfast.

"We have to cross here…" I note nervously, as the alleyway ends right where another street going across begins. "Should we just try to book it over?"

"Now hold on for just a minute – think about it. We want _less _noise, not _more_," Lilly says as she pokes her head around the corner for a closer look. "I say we take out the fellow over by those garbage cans… QUIETLY. Don't use your gun unless you absolutely have to."

"Guys…" Jane whispers, but neither Lilly or I hear her as we get set to move across.

"Ready?" Lilly asks me as I nod. She puts up three fingers before starting to count down, when all of a sudden…

"Guys!" Jane whispers more urgently, tapping me rapidly on the shoulder to get my attention. "We've got company!"

Turning around, I stifle back a gasp as a big group of at least twelve walkers stumble towards us mindlessly. It'll only be a matter of time before we're caught.

"Forget about silent! We've gotta move!" I say to them as the three of us sprint out into the street and attract almost every walker's attention within a 100 foot radius. The groans and howls of hungry walkers encapsulate us as we glance about in shock.

"I'm not dying today!" Lilly announces as the three of us stand back to back with each other; each one of us creating a circle of death as we fire off rounds into the encroaching walkers. "We need to create an opening! Keep shooting!"

But there are way too many of these things now; more than were at Howe's, and more than I've ever seen in my entire life. If there are such things as miracles, then now would be an especially good time for one.

And it comes in the form of some gunshots from Molly, as well as some other kid that I don't recognize.

I haven't seen Molly in years, but thankfully she seems to recognize me as she fires a bullet into two of the walkers' brains. Her and her friend are up on the roof right now, as the boy fires in the opposite direction at something. I'm not exactly sure what it is.

"Go! Up the ladder, hurry! I'll cover you!" Molly yells out, getting no complaint from the three of us as we make our way to where she pointed out. Just for good measure, Lilly stabs the walker sitting over by the garbage can before rejoining us at the ladder. A car alarm echoes throughout the area, which should give us a little bit of time until these things give us the chomp. Molly must've taught her friend about the noise thing…

This feels eerily similar to the Savannah situation, except this time none of us make it up the ladder. The entire thing collapses as Jane just barely pulls me out of the way in time. Nodding my thanks, I look up towards Molly as she instructs me to meet us at one of the doorways downstairs. When I ask if she's crazy, she ignores me and disappears out of my sight.

"Molly!" I call out, but get no reply as the walkers try to clamber over the fallen ladder.

"That thing won't hold them for very long," Lilly says as she shoots another walker in the brain. "Your friend better not be bullshitting us, Clementine!"

"I guess we'll find out!" Jane replies as the three of us scoot on down the alley until we reach the apartment door. Lilly bangs on it incessantly as the walkers make their way over to us – thank god they're slow.

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! NOW!" Lilly bellows as Jane and I try to hold our ground. We shoot our guns until the bullets in the chambers run out, and then we back up until we bump into Lilly.

Molly finally reaches the ground level before quickly ushering us inside. In the mad scramble for safety, Jane accidentally knocks me flat on my back out on the pavement as she and Lilly frightfully call out my name. A walker is almost upon me as I sit there absolutely defenseless; fearing that I'll befall the same fate as countless others did before me.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, the boy that Molly was with chops the thing's head off with some kind of… sword, by the looks of it? The blade bleeds crimson as he helps me stand, and I rush into the apartment just in time as Molly shuts and locks the door behind me.

"That… was too god damn close…" Jane pants, bending down to my level exhaustedly. "Are you alright, Clem?"

"Yeah… yeah, I think so. Thanks to Molly and this guy," I acknowledge, giving Molly a curt nod and a smile as I turn towards the boy. He's about a head taller than me, kind of dark skin with whitish-grey pants and a plain white t-shirt. He looks friendly enough, I suppose. "Thanks, Mr…"

"The name's Etrius," he replies, shrugging it off as he stands next to Molly. "And yeah, don't mention it."


	11. On the road again

"Well, now that we're done with all of these introductions," Molly says as all five of us stand there awkwardly, "would you guys mind telling me why you tried to bring the entire walker population of Atlanta down on top of us?!"

"We didn't exactly plan on it going that way!" Jane retorts, folding her arms across her chest. "Those things are everywhere – the walkers aren't exactly _easy _to avoid, you know!"

"Etri and I have managed just fine with them so far. Then you three come to town and just rile them all up!" Molly argues before softening her gaze a little as she glances at me. "It's been a while though, hasn't it?"

"Sure has," I smile, not terribly surprised to run into her out here with everything that's been going on recently.

Molly hasn't changed much, aside from what she's wearing. Replacing her usual red sweater and jeans is now a green long-sleeved shirt and brown pants. Her signature hook thingy is still placed at her side, as always.

But I'm not too sure what to make of the guy she's with. Etrius, eh? Hmm, he seems friendly enough, I suppose.

I walk along with Molly as Lilly and Jane follow in behind, as Etrius makes sure that the door is fully secured before coming along as well. This apartment complex isn't anything special really – just a small kitchen, a bedroom and one bathroom on this floor. The complex is about three stories high, and according to Molly it's been a pretty suitable spot for the two of them to stay in.

"Why are you even out here?" I ask her as we climb up the staircase; our footsteps echoing around us as I see the brick walls surrounding us.

"I should be asking you the same thing," she answers with a shrug. "Savannah turned out to be a total bust after I left you guys, so I moved on to Macon before coming up to Atlanta. There are some grocery stores and other places along the streets that nobody's gone into – probably because it's so dangerous. But I manage, somehow."

"Okay… so how do you know this guy?" I question, motioning to Etrius with my head as he silently follows us upwards. Molly opens the door to the third floor before telling me.

"I _was _on my own, but… I may have gotten caught up in more than I could chew this one time. A big pack of walkers got the jump on me, and Etrius happened to be holding up in the same building I was in. We broke out of there, and that was that."

"You know you love me, Molly!" Etrius teases with a sly smirk as she rolls her eyes.

"In your dreams, idiot," she jokes before slowly remembering something. "So Lee…"

When I shake my head, Molly frowns and looks over at Etrius before shaking her head. Confused, I turn around to see that the guy seems really saddened about hearing this news.

"Shit…" he swears, rubbing his eyes together as he speaks. "I thought for sure he would've made it… Lee was a hell of a guy. I used to go up to his family's pharmacy all the time…"

Not really wanting to say anything about the man who saved my life on numerous occasions, I shake my head before dropping the bag and sitting in one of the chairs. Molly does the same, but Jane and Lilly still stand there with suspicious looks on their faces; as if they're waiting for the moment when Molly attacks or Etrius drives his sword through their stomach.

"We don't bite, you know," Molly remarks sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at how awkward they're being. "You can rest here for a little bit, but then I think it'd be best for you guys to move along. Trust me, having a big group out in the streets is really dangerous."

"Where were you all headed anyways?" Etrius asks, going over to the kitchen and starting to open a can of pears.

"Why does it matter?"

"Lilly…" I warn, giving stern looks to both her and Jane at how untrusting they're being. "They saved our lives, and I know Molly. Take it easy."

After about five more seconds of silence, Lilly reluctantly tells them "Texas" before staying quiet once again. Don't they ever get tired of being this way all the time?

"Texas? The fuck?" Molly says in disbelief, confusion written all over her face. "I hate to break it to you guys, but that's a bad idea. It's overrun – Dallas, Houston, Austin, every big city there. I heard it on the news a couple of years back, so going there is just gonna get you killed."

"Take a look outside," Jane instructs, pointing out the window as Molly and Etrius reluctantly oblige. "Now, tell me what you see out there."

"Biters," Etrius answers as if Jane's on crack or something. "You know? The things that were about to eat you all out there?"

"Walkers are everywhere – that's just the way the world works now," Jane comments, glaring at Etrius' sense of sarcasm. "It doesn't matter where you go, not anymore. Walkers are in every fucking state, city, town and village, so sitting around on our asses isn't going to do anything. Personally, I'd rather take a chance at somewhere warm and new than try our luck around here for another god damn year."

"These are the people you decided to travel with?" Molly asks me with a sigh as she returns to her seat. "You see _this _is why I prefer travelling alone… no offense, Etrius."

"None taken, baby cakes," Etrius chuckles as Molly shoots him a glare. Well, at least there's_ somebody _around to keep things light with her. God knows she needs it every now and then, what with that whole Crawford situation a while back.

Lilly unholsters her gun for a second, scaring everyone and putting the two newbies on alert. However, I sigh when I realize that the woman's just trying to reload her weapon; pulling out the clip and grunting as she notices everyone staring at her.

"So… I'm guessing you'll be wanting to head out to Alabama then, right?" Etrius asks, more so to me than Lilly or Jane as he eyes them wearily. "How exactly were you guys planning on doing that?"

"We're looking for a car, if we can," I tell him as he passes the can of pears to Molly and eats the handful that he has. "You guys wouldn't happen to know if there are any around, would you?"

Glancing at each other nervously, Molly reluctantly nods before clarifying herself.

"Yeah… but it's ours," she explains, folding her hands together and stretching them out. "We keep it in the parking garage down below if we need to go on long runs, but it stays there. It's only for emergencies."

"Well, do you think we could – "

"No," Molly interrupts firmly, shaking her head as Etrius remains silent. "I'm sorry, Clem, but that's our getaway car. It's the only one we could find, and we need it."

"Sounds to me like that rust bucket's just collecting dust in your basement," Jane remarks as she too starts reloading a magazine into her gun. Realizing that I too am out of bullets, I walk over to her and start doing the same. Not a whole lot of these things left, so it's best to conserve ammo. "I'm pretty sure we could put it to better use, don't you think? We need to travel across like three more states just to get where we're going, and it'd be a hell of a lot safer with a vehicle."

"Tell me, why should we care again?" Etrius asks, not on board with the idea at all. Can't say I blame him on this one. "We don't know you people or what you're capable of! Besides, we found it fair and square! If you even think about stealing it, I swear to god I will run this sword straight up your – "

"Easy, easy," Molly soothes, realizing that she at least knows me and that I'd try to help her if the roles were reversed.

"You don't owe us anything, Molly…" I tell her solemnly, shrugging my shoulders as she considers her options.

Biting her lip, she looks at me for a few seconds before groaning and asking why she gets herself into these situations.

"Molly, you can't be serious! You can't just hand it over to them!" Etrius remarks as Molly waves her hand in an effort to calm him down.

"Clem saved my life, Etri. Back in Crawford… and I can't just abandon them now. Besides, I'm not just giving the thing to them," she explains, narrowing her eyes at Lilly and Jane before telling us what's up. "We can take you out of the downtown area, but after that you're on your own. In return… you give us one of your guns."

"_WHAT?!_" Lilly asks incredulously, throwing her hands up into the air. "You cannot be serious right now! We need our guns, and we'll die if we don't have them!"

"It's compensation for the ammo we had to use earlier," Molly shrugs; her posture giving off the array of a businesswoman. "It's either that, or you give us some of your food and supplies. We're running low again, and it won't be long before we have to go back out into the streets to find more. Seems like a fair deal to me."

"Just… let me talk it over," I explain, rubbing the bridge of my nose as I realize how this conversation's going to go. I bring Jane and Lilly over to the stairwell so that we can talk in private, as Etrius studies my face. He's probably wondering how a little kid like me ended up with a guy like Lee.

Anyways, I shut the door behind me as Lilly almost immediately tells us not to take the deal.

"This is such a rip-off!" she complains; pacing around so much that it looks as though she could tear a hole through the floor. "We barely have enough of this shit as it is, and we don't need a couple of chauffeurs to drive us out of Atlanta! If we're careful, then we can just walk out there with no problems."

"You saw how many of them were out there! If we try running, the only thing that'll happen is us getting our throats ripped out!" Jane exclaims gruesomely, as the picture of that makes me shudder. "Look, I don't like this either, but we can just give her a gun and get out of here safely. Giving them food is too risky."

"Oh yeah, and giving these strangers a gun _isn't?!_" Lilly scoffs as her voice echoes throughout the stairwell. I've been quiet for long enough, so I tell them both to be quiet before this turns into another heated debate.

"Jane's right, Lilly… We need a way out of here. We don't have a clue where to even go."

"Of course you'd agree with her," she sighs frustratingly, running her fingers through her brown hair. "You know, just because I haven't been around for very long doesn't mean that you two get to push me around all the time! I'm trying to keep us going, but you two just brush me off as if I'm a fucking fly buzzing around!"

"What is it going to take with you, seriously?!" Jane groans, smacking the railing with her fist in anger. "You think the whole fucking world is out against you, but guess what? It's against _everybody! _Nobody wants to hear any more of your whiny bullshit, Lilly! I've had it with you!"

"Umm… everything alright in here?"

The three of us turn around to see Etrius with his head awkwardly in the door, probably frightened after listening to the constant in-fighting between Jane and Lilly. This was actually pretty tame compared to past brawls…

"Just weighing our options," I sigh, looking towards Jane who gives me a shrug. "We're… gonna take your offer. We'll… give you a handful of food rations, and then you take us out of the city."

"Clem!" Jane hisses as I fold my arms defiantly. "That wasn't what we agreed on! What about the gun?!"

"We can find more food," I explain as we walk back into the apartment. Molly and Etrius look like they're ready to go. "A gun is a lot harder to come by."

With our permission, Etrius walks over to our bag and starts to inspect it; unzipping it and peering inside at our collection.

"You guys have been living off of fruit cups and granola bars?" he asks with disbelief, pulling out four bars and two fruit cups before zipping it back up. That seems like a bit much to be taking, but I keep my mouth shut as he hands me another can of pears. "Here, we've got enough of these for now… I don't want to just leave you with nothing."

"Thanks," I nod appreciatively as he gives me a small smile. "That's, uh, really sweet of you."

"Ha ha, yeah… that's what I'm here for," he jokes sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders as I giggle beside him. When Molly gives him a knowing look, Etrius turns red and gives her the finger before putting the haul safely away.

"Are we all set then?" Molly asks, still smiling as she nudges Etrius in the ribs. I'm really kind of confused right now – is there something on my face?

…..

Once we enter the parking garage below the apartment, I see the beaten-up, blue Dodge Caravan sitting haphazardly near one of the walls. Obviously the electricity no longer works, so the only way for us to lift the garage door is to do so manually.

It's not because I'm lazy that I don't really want to do this – it's that I'm not so sure what's on the other side of this thing.

"Etri, get ready," Molly instructs as she places her hook underneath the heavy metal door. "On three, ready? One, two, three!"

With a heave of might, Molly lifts the door upwards using the hook as a sort of leverage. Etrius takes his sword and jabs it through the head of a walker that was sitting right outside. He then takes some sort of medium-sized blade thing out from his backpack and tosses it at another walker; yanking the object back with a rope.

"Okay, no time for showing off!" Molly grunts as she releases the hook and hurries back to the driver's seat. Revving the engine, she steps on the gas pedal and drives out of the parking garage; running over a walker in the process.

As the three of us look towards Etrius questioningly, he simply shrugs his shoulders and says that the blade thing is called a kunai.

"What are you, some kind of ninja or something?" Jane asks sarcastically as I stifle back a snort. It kind of seemed that way to be honest.

"Nope… but I did kick ass as a black belt, though."

"That would explain some things," Lilly comments as she gazes out the window.

This city… it looks like it got hit by a nuclear bomb. Everything is run-down and decrepit, from the street signs to the hotdog stands to the shattered shop windows. Grass and weeds are starting to form in between cracks in the road, and loads of cars with dirty windshields are littering the sides of the street.

Even though it's been two years, this place still makes me gaze in wonder. How could the entire world have fallen like this? Where were all the army guys and police officers who were supposed to protect us? Did they know that something as horrible as this would happen?

"I hope you know what you're doing, Clem…" Jane whispers so that only we can hear. Etrius hears some murmuring, but he faces his head forward when he sees that it's a private conversation.

"I always know what I'm doing."

"Sure you do. And I'm sure you thought that burning all that stuff back at Howe's was a clever thing to do too, right?" she says with a neutral expression.

"How did you know…"

"I came downstairs while you were sleeping in the pen that morning," she explains, placing one hand under her chin as she watches the walkers go by. "I don't know why you did that, and it's totally your business… but you don't have to do things alone."

"But you said that sometimes it's better to be alone, remember?" I remind her, concerned that she found out about all that drama.

Looking at me out of the corner of her eye, Jane shrugs her shoulders. "A friend told me to stick around, so I did."

Knowing fully well that she's talking about me, I look down into my lap and stay quiet for the next little while. I really don't know what to say to that.

…..

"Well, this is as far as we go," Molly says, parking the car to the side and turning around to face us. "From here on out, you're on your own."

"Thank you Molly – you really helped us out," I tell her honestly before turning to smile at Etrius. "You too, that was really nice of you guys."

"Yeah, well, we were just in the neighbourhood, so…" he jokes, surprising me by giving me a one-armed hug. "Take care of yourself, Clementine."

Molly gives an "_awwww_" face as I embarrassingly break away from him, biting my lip and awkwardly shuffling out of the car. I wave goodbye to Molly as she takes off for the last time.

Lilly, Jane and I just stand there for a time; trying to figure out what to do next. We're in the right direction at least, since according to Etrius Alabama shouldn't be too far away.

But we're still just on foot.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Jane orders as all three of us take out our guns. "We'll check any cars that we come across, but always have somebody watching your back. The fuckers could be anywhere."

"Has anyone else noticed that nobody calls them zombies?" I quip, trying to lighten up the mood as we continue our journey west. "I've heard walkers, biters, creepy-crawlies, lurkers… never zombies though."

"This isn't like the movies, Clem," Lilly says simply as I sigh. I suppose it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, does it?

After at least half an hour of walking, the three of us finally make it to the Georgia-Alabama state line, with not very many walkers in sight.

"Must be our lucky day," Jane comments as she bends down to check over a pair of walkers. "These bodies seem pretty fresh. Clem, you know what to do."

Lilly keeps a look-out while I bend down to examine the body like a crime scene investigator. There's really not a whole lot on this guy, so… oh, hello!

"Found a gun and some rounds on this guy," I call out with a smirk, struggling to roll the body back over. "Did you find anything yet? Jane?"

"Stay where you are, or the lady here gets it!" yells out a crazy-looking fat man with a white golf-shirt, black dress shorts and a pair of black sneakers. I don't care about his appearance though, since he's got a gun lined up right against Lilly's head threateningly. The guy must've snuck up on her from behind.

"Drop it right now," Jane tells him harshly, her voice giving away no emotion other than determination. "This won't end well for you, big guy. Trust me."

"You shut your fucking mouth!" he snaps as he grips the back of Lilly's sweater tightly. "I ain't got no time for this bullshit! You give me everything you have right fucking now, or I'll put a bullet in her brain! I'll do it, I swear to god!"

"…No you won't," I say with narrowed eyes as Jane and Lilly both glance over at me. "You won't do it – you're alone out here, and you don't have anywhere else to go. So instead of trying to find food yourself, you felt like robbing three armed women. How is that a good thing for you?"

"You – you keep quiet, you little bitch!" he stutters, and I internally smirk as I realize that he's going to crack. On the outside though, I try to remain calm and egg this guy on a little more. If I can just get the right opening…

Jane seems to catch on to what I'm doing, and glares icily back at the scared man.

"How will this end well for you?" she asks as her gun never leaves its target. "We've got you outnumbered here, and nobody's around to help you. Did you honestly think this was a good idea?"

"GIVE ME THE FUCKING BAG, NOW!" he shouts as his voice cracks and sweat starts to form on his forehead. Messing with people's heads can work wonders if you're good at it.

But enough of this – Lilly's still in danger.

"I suggest you take your gun off of her before you _really _piss us off," Jane says as I inch closer. If I can just get the right angle on him…

And as soon as he notices what I'm trying to do, he takes his aim off of Lilly and fires a warning shot towards me.

He doesn't have the guts to pull a stunt like this off, and Jane capitalizes on this opportunity by outing a bullet into his shoulder. Lilly kicks him square in the junk as he collapses in pain.

"Fucking pig…" she states quietly before aiming her pistol at the man's head and firing it at him.

As soon as that's done, I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding and sit on the ground. That was WAY too close, and Lilly certainly doesn't look very pleased… with us.

"Jesus! Did you two _want _him to kill me?!"

"It was the only way for him to cave! You should be _thanking _us, actually!" Jane points out, even though I'm having a hard time agreeing with her statement.

What was I _thinking?! _Poking the bear is NEVER a good idea, especially when that bear has a gun in its hand.

"We're tough…" I try saying to lighten the mood again, "we can handle guys like this."

"It's not about being tough, Clem! A 250 pound, muscular bodybuilder might be tough, but he's still gonna go down from a bullet in the chest!" she explains dramatically, but I see her point. "There's no need for you to put yourself in harm's way… not to mention me as well!"

"I'm sorry, Lilly. It won't happen again," I apologize, bending down to look and see what this guy is carrying. I place his gun and ammunition in my bag, but scoff as I pull out two Rice Krispies squares out of his pockets. "He was lying! He still had some food on him!"

"Yeah, but for how long?" Jane chips in as the wind starts to pick up. It's gonna storm soon. "Two packs of food wouldn't last you more than a day, unless he had another stash somewhere."

Squinting my eyes, I tug his stained shirt and wipe some of the blood off of his name tag.

"George Foreman," I read, ripping the tag off and showing it to Lilly and Jane.

"Like the grill?" Jane asks cheekily as she receives an annoyed glare from Lilly.

Inspecting it further, I struggle to read the words very clearly – after all, the last grade I finished was first grade. However, I get the gist of it.

"He must've worked here," I explain, handing the ID to Lilly as she too examines it. "What's a… border patrol officer?"

"They pull over cars at this checkpoint here; make sure people pay the fee and aren't up to no good," Lilly explains, pointing to one of the checkpoint booths and the border patrol office right across from it. "Maybe they've got some stuff in there. Let's check the place out before moving on."

"Who named you queen again?" Jane asks as I scrounge through his shirt pocket. When I feel the metallic object between my fingers, I smile widely and pull it out.

Car keys.

As soon as Jane notices my discovery, she grins and starts to rapidly look around the border patrol. I place the treats in my backpack before narrowing my gaze to the horizon; shielding my eyes from the sun. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot here so far, but that's alright. Texas is what we're really after.

Things will be better there, I'm sure of it. It just has to be…

And when I hear Jane shout in victory and pull up in a green pickup truck, I can't help but chuckle as Lilly comes outside to see what all the fuss is about.

For once in our lives, things are starting to look up.

_AN: Alright, thanks to kesarkuch for letting me use Etrius for a couple of chapters! He's pretty much a bad ass, so I definitely recommend checking him out in kesarkuch's story :) _

_As a side note, no, I won't be adding any more old characters from the video game to this story. Molly was the last one, as it'd be too much of a coincidence and wouldn't make much sense in this since they're going to Texas and all. Either way, thanks for reading and please toss a review!_


	12. Take me for a ride

_AN: Okay, just so that people are aware, I have no idea what there is really in the southern states, since I'm not actually from the US myself. So if I screw something up, please just try to bear with me! _

"Turn that shit off, would you? I'm trying to sleep…" Lilly complains, shifting in her seat to get into a more comfortable position. In response, Jane simply turns the volume up a little bit louder. "Seriously! Knock it off already!"

"Come on, lighten up, would ya?" Jane shakes her head, smirking at me into the rear-view mirror. Jane sure does enjoy tormenting Lilly – probably because she almost always manages to get a reaction out of her. "And how could you say no to Nirvana?"

"Who's Nirvana?"

"Get out of the car!" Jane orders in a mock disbelieving tone. "You can't tell me that you've never heard of them! They were rock stars – "

"Punks," Lilly corrects, getting an eye roll from Jane as she continues to talk to me about this band that I don't really care for that much. Jane found the CD for it in one of the glove compartments, and she's been cranking tunes for at least an hour now. They were around quite a bit before I was born, so it's not really much of a surprise that I have no idea what she's babbling on about.

It's nice to hear people enjoying themselves for a change, though.

"Meh, before your time I guess," Jane concludes as the truck goes silent again, except for the music of course.

You know, on occasion I'll ask myself how it is that I managed to get here. Driving along the highway in western Alabama; travelling with two women who I never would've met if the apocalypse didn't happen, and heading to Texas in search of some sort of refuge. It's kind of crazy to think about, don't you think?

Christa always used to go on with me about how we should keep moving north – up to Wellington and away from the cities. Kenny was the same way too, and maybe in some sense they were right. Maybe this is all just a massive waste of time; that there's no refuge anywhere, and that thinking such a place exists is just survivor's hope kicking in.

I guess we'll never know unless we try.

"We're running low on gas," Jane points out suddenly, tapping the dashboard lightly with her finger. "Any chance that you two know where we could find a gas station around somewhere?"

"You won't need one," Lilly yawns, stretching her arms up and getting the kinks out of her neck. "Pull over when we see some cars."

"What are you gonna do?" I ask, playing with some loose strings on my poncho as Jane does as she commands.

"We need a tube," she explains, rooting around up front but grimacing when she comes up empty-handed. "Damn… Jane, are there any tubes in the trunk that you noticed?"

"There's a garden hose, but I don't know how much help that's gonna be."

"It'll have to do then. Pull up to that cement truck over there," Lilly commands, unbuckling her seatbelt and hopping out to open the trunk. "This thing takes diesel, right?"

…..

"Eww! That's gonna taste awful!" I cringe, watching as Lilly cuts the garden hose with Jane's knife and sticks it into the… you know, the hole where you put the gas into your car.

"You don't drink it, silly," Lilly chuckles, shaking her head at my childlike behaviour. "You suck it up like a straw, and you block off one part of the hose so that it stays inside. Then you just take it and put the gas into our truck."

"It's called siphoning, I think," Jane tells me, cutting off another two pieces of the hose and handing one of them to me. "We might as well learn this stuff now, Clem. Better to get it out of the way early on."

I hear Lilly slurp up the gas as her fingers squeeze the hose tightly, before she takes the hose and sticks it into our truck's gas hole.

"This is called a fill spout," Lilly explains as I hold the hose in my hand like a foreign object. "We'll take turns, Jane can go next. Then Clem, then me, and we'll keep going until it's all filled up. But we need to get back on the road soon – we were making good time."

"Clem's gonna drive us for a little while," she informs us with a smirk as I widen my eyes in nervousness.

"Jane, what the heck?!"

"Come on, Clem," she encourages, siphoning her gas and placing it into the fill spout. "It's not so bad once you get the hang of it. Besides, it's not as if there are any people out on the road."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," I reply sarcastically, placing my section of hose into the cement truck's fill spout. Okay, just like a straw, and… _Blech! Bleah! _Oh god, that's so disgusting!

"I think it went up my nose!" I complain, spitting and sputtering out onto the dirt as Jane and Lilly laugh at me. "Yuck… This isn't funny, guys! Am I gonna die?!"

"You're fine," Lilly chuckles, handing me a water bottle as she goes back to siphoning. "It'll taste like ass for a little while, so wash it out with some water. Don't use it all, though – we don't have a lot of those left."

"Yeah, and that pond water wasn't exactly satisfying," Jane comments, wrinkling her nose at the memory. "Next time, I'm picking the water spots. I don't want to get hepatitis or some shit."

"That's what you're worried about? Seriously?" Lilly scoffs as she dumps her gas into our truck. "Ugh, whatever. A few more of these and we should be good for a little while."

After I'm completely certain that any residue of diesel has been removed from my mouth, I wipe my lips off with my sleeve and lean against the truck until they both finish what they're doing. Jane tosses the keys my way as I gulp and start to get butterflies in my stomach.

"Isn't the limit sixteen?" I question as I sit in the front seat; my feet just barely able to make it to the pedals.

"That's what I was thinking…" I hear Lilly murmur from the back, but Jane brushes her off and tells me to put my seatbelt on.

"Okay, before we do anything," she says to me seriously, pointing out to both windows, "these are your side mirrors. You use them to see what's behind you, obviously, but in this case you probably won't need to use them as much. The only thing you'll be seeing are run-down cars or walkers."

"Great…" I remark sarcastically, gripping the leather steering wheel in my tiny hands.

"This is your rear-view mirror," she explains, telling me to adjust it so that I can see out the back. "Next, this is the gear shift over here. This truck's got P, D, N and R – that's park, drive, neutral and reverse. So before you do a thing, twist the key in the ignition."

"Can you speed this up, Jane?"

"Do you want her to crash?" Jane asks bitterly before turning back towards me. "Just take your time. So, twist the key… that's it, and now put your foot on the brake pedal."

"Which one is that?"

"Left one," Jane says swiftly, as I do what I'm instructed. "Good, now hold your foot down on there, and now twist the clutch into the drive position. That's "D", remember?"

"Okay…" I say uncertainly, doing as she instructs as moving it to the correct position. The truck doesn't budge an inch. "Nothing's happening! Did I do something wrong?"

"Take your foot off the brake," I hear Lilly call to me, so I do so but panic as the car starts to move on its own.

"I didn't use the gas, though!" I say; my knuckles turning white from clutching the steering wheel so tightly. Lilly, of all people, puts a comforting hand on my shoulder and tells me to just relax as I try to keep us from falling off the road.

"Come on, Clem! You're driving as slow as my grandma!" Jane jokes as I reluctantly step on the gas pedal. Once I get to a good, steady pace, I grin as we start to gain some momentum.

"I'm doing it! I'm actually driving!" I cheer happily, getting a nod from Jane as she sits back in the seat and closes her eyes. Instantly, I shove her on the arm in protest. "Don't fall asleep! I can't do this myself!"

"But you're doing it right now," she comments, placing my hand back on the steering wheel and resting her head on the door. "Just keep going straight – it's pretty easy to do. We don't turn off this road until we get to Mississippi. If you're having trouble, lemme know. Or let Miss Bossy Pants back there help you out, if you're feeling gutsy enough."

"You're just a barrel of laughs, aren't you?" Lilly retorts, giving me a thumbs up from the back seat. "You're doing well, Clem. Just keep going straight ahead. I'll take over in a bit."

As I continue trying to not get us caught in a ditch or something, I sigh in relief at how much easier this is than I thought it would be. I totally had no self-confidence with this, as I recall how panicked I became after Jane forced me to drive back up north; trying to get us away from walkers. The circumstances were much different, sure, but that moment kind of scarred me. I crashed the truck right into a walker back then, and I thought for sure that my driving would forever remain as terrible as it was back then.

But this has really helped my cause, I'll admit.

Jane's already passed out like a light beside me, but Lilly's sitting in the back with her palms placed on her forehead; looking pretty worn-down.

"What's wrong, Lilly?" I ask her, looking in the rear-view mirror concernedly.

"What isn't wrong these days, Clem?" she answers, looking at me with hollowed-out, tired eyes. "I'm just tired of having to carry a gun around constantly; tired of losing people."

Steadying my hands, I just barely avoid a parked car before swerving back into the middle of the highway; relief settling in as I try to multitask.

"The best thing you can do for the people you've lost," I tell her quietly, careful not to awaken Jane, "is to keep living your life. They'd want you to be happy."

"I wish it were that simple, Clementine. I really do," she sighs, leaning her head back against the seat. "But look around you! Things are worse than ever, and it's kind of hard to be cheerful when your friends are dead and you have to constantly look over your shoulder."

"Lee used to tell me that things would get better – that I'd make it better…"

"Do you really believe that?"

Not taking my eyes off the road, I frown and sigh heavily as I see a woman getting eaten alive in a nearby farmer's field a little bit away from us. There's no way for us to help her even if we tried, so I try my best not to look as Lilly shakes her head at the grizzly scene.

"…no…" I respond quietly and truthfully as my grip on the steering wheel tightens. "Maybe at one point I did, but… that was before everyone died. Before I saw my parents standing there as a pair of walkers, and I couldn't tear my eyes away even as Lee was dying right beside me. That was before I showed up at some cabin in the woods with a bunch of people that took me in, and then they all died shortly afterwards. That was before I shot Kenny right in the chest and tried to convince myself that it was the right thing to do."

Lilly watches me in silence from the back seat; flabbergasted and probably a little bit terrified that I've been through so much in just two years. I never really told her any of that except for a little bit about Kenny, so it's probably a lot to take in.

She's had it bad, yeah. But so has everyone else…

"But there's nothing I can do about it now," I explain wisely as the road becomes a little bit bumpier. "Nothing I can do except – HOLY CRAP!"

I slam on the brakes as Lilly collides into the front seat and Jane bangs her head roughly on the dashboard painfully. My heart races as my eyes trace the animals in front of me… but what the heck are they doing in Alabama?

"Oww, Jesus…" Jane rubs her forehead tenderly as she scrunches up her face. "Talk about a rude wake-up call… Clem, if you're trying to kill me, can you at least give me a heads-up next time?"

"Sorry, but put your seat belt on next time! Anyways, look there!" I tell her in wonder, pointing to some rather large animals staring back at us like deer in the headlights. "Why are there lions and tigers out here?"

"Oh my," Jane jokes lamely, completely neglecting the bears part. But yeah, I'm not kidding – there's a pack of four lions resting on the side of the road, while a tiger sadly tries to wake up another Bengal tiger that's most likely dead. It's difficult to tell what killed it, but I'd imagine it either got hit, attacked by a walker or starved to death. These beasts look really skinny.

"Hang on a sec, where are we right now?" Lilly questions, pulling out a map of Alabama from the pouch behind Jane's seat. After scanning it for a while, she shakes her head in disbelief. "We're just a little ways past Birmingham."

"So? What does that have to do with anything?" Jane asks, seeming kind of nervous about these creatures even though we're in the comfort and relative safety of the truck.

"So, Jane, it means that these guys must've somehow escaped from the Birmingham Zoo," she explains, bringing the map forward and pointing the zoo out to us. "See? They probably got out when the food started drying up."

"Wait a minute, so you're telling me there could be _more _of these guys?" Jane squeaks, pressing the lock button on all of our doors as she looks on in fright. I can't help but laugh at how frightened she's getting.

"This is rich… you're telling me that you can kill walkers like it's your day job, but you're afraid of a few big cats?" I ask with a smirk, chuckling even more as she glares at me with indignity. "Come on, Jane! I think they're pretty cute actually!"

"Yeah, I guess they are," Lilly agrees, which surprises me remembering the tone of our earlier conversation just moments ago. If this isn't a sign of hope, then I don't know what is.

"They're not so cute when you stick your finger through the fence at the zoo…" Jane mutters, frowning at the lions as they look towards us with indifference.

Looking towards Lilly, she shakes her head and rubs her hand over her face in disbelief.

"You didn't…"

"I did," Jane admits, rolling her eyes as she recalls the memory. "I must've been eight or nine at the time, but I went to the zoo with my family one day, and me being the bad kid I was wanted to try and pet the lion. I stuck my hand through the fence, and then one of the lions came up and scratched my finger until it bled. I've hated these things ever since."

"Why is it that you always have the best stories?" I laugh; my body shaking with giggles as I place my face over the steering wheel.

However, my amusement is cut short when I start to hear the all-too-familiar groaning sound that we've all become unfortunately accustomed to.

Walkers – three of them have come onto the road and walked over to the lions to try and eat them I suppose. Now _this _is unusual, since you don't often see walkers trying to eat anything other than living humans.

But I guess it's already unusual enough that there are random lions and tigers roaming about on the highway though, isn't it?

You can hear the lions growling as the tiger looks on at them menacingly; waiting for one of the walkers to try and eat its dead friend. Thankfully it seems that only humans come back to life afterwards, otherwise we'd be in even bigger trouble. But anyways, two of the walkers advance on a lion as the rest of the pride goes in to attack.

Claws are thrown about as the lions roar, and the third walker is tackled by the tiger as it tries to have a go at the dead one. Slashing and ripping of flesh can be seen and heard as the walkers get absolutely torn to bits; their bodies getting ripped open as black ooze spills onto the road and mats the cats' fur in dark liquid. Things get even more terrifying as the lions rip the head off of two of the walkers before clawing at their faces viciously, while the tiger rips the third walker limb from limb. They don't stop attacking until they're completely dead; leaving nothing remaining except for torn body parts, ripped clothing and diseased blood. You can't even tell that they were walkers anymore.

Lilly, Jane and I stay silent as our mouths hang open and our eyes are twisted in fear and trauma. You could literally hear a pin drop from how quiet it is in the truck. This would actually look really hilarious if not for what we just witnessed, but obviously nobody's laughing right now.

"Those animals just got considerably less cute…" Lilly breaks the silence quietly.

"Agreed…" I say to her, turning the truck back on and driving past the animals as quickly as possible.

I think that I'm gonna be sick…


	13. Mississippi Queens

"Anybody want Starbuck's?" Lilly asks sarcastically as we pass _yet another _one of those coffee shops while making our way through this one-horse town. Seriously, I think there are more of these places than houses around here!

We've been driving for so long that my legs are starting to cramp in the back seat, as Lilly and I switched spots not long after we passed by those zoo animals on the road. That whole incident for some reason reminded me of having to put down that dog that bit me a while ago… Man, Sam would've been a great dog, I'm sure of it.

Apparently we had travelled deep through Mississippi (I always misspell that word) without my knowledge, and by the time Jane had mentioned we were nearing the big river that runs through this state I was pleasantly surprised. We've gotten a lot of ground covered in just a day and a half, but the sun's coming down soon – perhaps it'd be best to stop for the night.

I want to get off this stupid truck for a little while!

"Maybe we should stop to look around here for a bit," I suggest, sticking my head in between Jane and Lilly's seats. "It's getting kind of late, don't you think?"

"Can't you just sleep in the back?" Lilly asks, but sighing when I give her my best puppy dog face. I'm telling you, it's hard to resist. "Fine… we'll get a few hours of rest, but then it's back on the road at first light, understand?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cheer happily, grinning as even Lilly manages to pull off a smirk no matter how much she tries to be stoic. After spending just three short weeks with Jane and I again, I think I'm finally starting to get into her good graces. This is far more enjoyable than having to worry about her snapping at me or trying to pull a gun out on someone.

Well, as Jane pointed out a while ago, someone that didn't deserve it.

The three of us might not agree with each other on everything, but I think that's for the best. It lets all three of us say what our opinion is, and we can rationalize better than any group that I've been in so far. Sure, Jane and Lilly might fight a lot, and sometimes it can get kind of violent and ruthless, but they're less prone to just immediately rush into violence than Kenny ever was.

Maybe I did make the right choice after all.

"No way…" Jane remarks in amazement, pointing into one of the Starbucks coffee shops as I follow what she's on about. As soon as I realize what she's surprised about, I too shake my head in wonder.

Somehow, there's still electricity in here; when all the other lights have gone out.

"There's gotta be somebody in there, though," Lilly muses as the three of us hide behind some trash bins. "I'll head in first – you two watch my back."

"What are you gonna do? Shoot whoever's living in there?" Jane asks sceptically, glancing up above the trash bin and gazing longingly into the store.

"Hopefully I won't have to," Lilly muses before quietly maneuvering towards the brick part of the building. Jane swears under her breath before looking at me and running behind her. Taking one look back at the truck to make sure nobody's stolen it, I quickly follow the both of them with my gun at the ready.

As soon as she's ready, Lilly carefully opens the front door, hearing the dinging sound of a bell as she enter the Starbucks. When nobody comes pouncing out to kill the intruders, she starts checking her corners with her gun raised in front of her.

"Clear on this end…" Lilly whispers as Jane and I enter the coffee shop.

Man… even after over two years, this place _still _smells like coffee and treats. The aroma flows through my nose and is really pleasant as I can practically picture some huge cookies in some of the display cases, but to Jane it looks as though it's almost intoxicating. She closes her eyes and breathes in through her nose as I smirk and shake my head. Grown-ups are weird.

"I don't see anybody," Lilly finally calls out as she stands up, prompting us to do the same as I relax and place my gun back in my pocket. Seems as though the coast is clear for right now anyways.

"Let's just have a quiet night," I suggest, placing my backpack on one of the little tables they've got placed around here.

"That's something I can get on board with," Jane agrees, hopping the counter and playing around with the various dusty machines. "Damn… it's been a long time since I've had a real mug of joe."

"Don't even start on that," Lilly laughs bitterly. "I used to drink coffee by the bucket back when I worked at Warner Robin's."

"Aren't you supposed to drink it in mugs?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly," she says matter of factly, "my coworkers used to call me the Queen of Caffeine back in the day. God knows I've had withdrawal symptoms since then."

"That would explain some things…" Jane mutters out of ear-shot from Lilly – wisely done because Jane would probably end up with a smashed coffee pot at the back of her head. I simply roll my eyes and take a look at how our food situation's coming along.

Not looking too good, I'm afraid. We're living off of scraps as it is, and we're dangerously low on food now. We have enough for maybe two days' worth left, but hopefully that'll be enough at least until we get to Texas. According to Jane, we still need to cross over Louisiana in order to get over to Houston, so it shouldn't be that much more driving from here on out.

Closing the bag back up, I watch as Jane heads outside for a little bit; muttering something about leaving her knife in the truck or something like that. Instead of just sitting here on my hands, I decide to get up and look around this restaurant a little bit. Yes, I know that they're mostly the same at all of the locations, but maybe there are some leftover treats laying about that people may have forgotten.

What Lilly and I find instead, however, is much more disturbing.

In the back room sits a diseased corpse propped up next to a radiator; a bullet wound in his head as his blood is splattered against the wall behind him.

Now, who does _this _remind you of?

I can't help but feel sorry for the guy as Lilly bends down to inspect some sort of machine that's running next to him. He must've been in quite a bit of pain before he died, as it looks as though he got bitten right in the neck. I wonder if he did this to himself, or somebody else did it first. There's no gun around anywhere, so we can't really tell – somebody could've come in here and taken the gun with them afterwards.

"I think we owe the power to this guy," Lilly comments, unfolding a piece of paper and reading it. "These are instructions on how to keep the motor running. It says that it can power the store for up to a week before turning off."

"So somebody's been here recently," I conclude as my nerves increase significantly. Hopefully whoever was here doesn't come back.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Clem," Lilly advises as she puts the note back down. "This place has been picked clean. If anyone were to stay here, it'd only be for a day or two. No sense in keeping a place with no supplies."

"Then why did he want to keep the electricity on?" I inquire; the whole thing seeming rather confusing to me. "Why would he bother?"

Picking up the instructions again, Lilly shakes her head sadly after reading it before telling me to look at the bottom paragraph. I hold the paper up to the light and begin scanning through it like an ancient artifact.

_To whoever's still left alive,_

_My time has come, I'm afraid. I've been bitten, and I don't want to turn into one of those horrors that plague the cities and the countryside. I just couldn't bear the thought of waking up and… eating… people. Even writing the words down makes me gag._

_Anyways, this place was my temporary home, if you will. I came across it after so many close friends of mine had departed, and I managed to get this small backup generator working again. As is to be expected, the machine only operates for a limited time before shutting down, so be sure to follow the instructions and handle it with care. Don't shit where you sleep, is what I'm trying to say._

_Hopefully a little light will brighten your life – even in this perpetual darkness. This madness will end someday, I'm sure of it, but unfortunately I won't live to see that wish fulfilled. If you're reading this… then perhaps you'll see it for me._

_Take care, and good luck._

_Norman Reedus_

"Who do you think he was?" I ask as I carefully place the note back to its resting place; glancing at this once kind man who met his untimely demise.

"Maybe an engineer? I don't know…"

"Well, whoever he is," I remark, glancing as Jane comes bursting through the door, "he did one heck of a job of this place."

Jane doesn't seem dampened by the fact that we just found somebody's corpse in the back of this restaurant, as she waves a sheet of Bristol board around with vigor. I've never seen her this enthusiastic or hopeful about anything.

"You won't guess what I found," Jane remarks, beckoning for Lilly and I to follow her back into the dining area. "I don't know if this is bullshit or not, but look!"

As she lays the paper flat against the counter, I bend under Jane's arm to get a look. The writing's pretty crappy, almost seeming like whoever wrote it was in a rush, but I can still make it out.

"Houston Hills: Sanctuary and Refuge for all," I read aloud, realizing why this got Jane a little bit excited. I smirk at her as she pats my shoulder. Lilly doesn't seem too impressed, but that's not surprising.

"Finally! This might be a sign that we're on the right track!" Jane boasts as Lilly shakes her head and scowls at the paper. Told you that we argue a lot!

"This is obviously just some kind of trap people are laying out," Lilly states her opinion, scrutinizing every word. "Why would somebody come all the way out here to advertise this shit? They'd be overpopulated, and this is definitely some kind of sham."

"Well if it is, then we'll avoid this place," Jane reasons, still not backing down on moving to Texas. We've come this far already, and it'd be a massive waste of time to just turn back around and leave after all the trouble we went through to get here. "Look, I know this might sound like another Wellington bullshit fantasy land, but at least we'll be warm and relatively safe down here! Besides, there are more places than just Houston in Texas, Lilly!"

"They _want _people like us to come here!" she argues back. "They lure people to them with phony messages of someplace better, but it's all an illusion! We'll be out in the desert looking for an oasis, when all we'll end up finding is a mirage! Or even worse, walkers."

"What kind of sick-minded fucks would do something like that? Besides, you said so yourself – why would they come all the way out here just to trick people?!"

"I don't know!" Lilly huffs as I watch on in silence. Neither side is being completely unreasonable this time around, so I'll let this debate continue. For now, anyways. "You've seen how some people get when they've lost everything – they go crazy! I'll admit it, and Clem knows this, but I was a fucking mess after I lost my dad. It gets you into a dark place, and some people just… lose it. They don't act rationally. Some people just want to watch the world burn…"

"Then what would you have us do, huh?" Jane asks with hostility as I grab onto her wrist in hope's that it'll calm her down and prevent this from escalating even further.

"Turn this rust bucket around and head up north somewhere… or even fucking east again, I don't care! But heading into the lion's den is never the right answer."

"I can't fucking believe this…" Jane mutters darkly, shrugging off my grip and facing the woman with whom she argues so viciously. "The first sign of actual hope we've had since Howe's, and now you want to just turn tail and run?!"

"That's what this is!" Lilly accuses, jabbing a finger into Jane's chest and knocking her back a step.

"What are you talking about now?"

"You're just looking for another god damn Howe's!" she blasts as her fire comes back. That's odd, I thought that it had burned out entirely. "You just couldn't let go, could you? You were so friggin' proud that you could control a place like that by yourself, and it burned you when it got overrun by a group of walkers!"

"That's nuts!" Jane bites back indignantly, folding her arms across her chest. "Don't start talking down at me as if you know better! You don't! You're just a lonely, pissed off little girl who lost her way and is looking for someone to blame for all of her problems! Would you just get a fucking grip on yourself, Lilly?!"

"DON'T!" I bellow, immediately stepping in between the two of them and pushing as hard as I can against Lilly's stomach, even though it doesn't do much. Lilly does look down at me though, as some angry tears prickle at my eyes.

"We can't do this again…" I mutter pathetically, banging my fists uselessly and softly against Lilly's sternum as the fighting reluctantly stops. Shaky sobs erupt in my chest as Jane mutters about keeping watch for a little while.

Lilly bends down and does the one thing that I never would've expected from her in a million years – Lilly Caul actually _hugs _me!

Yeah, you heard right! She bends down to my height and wraps her arms carefully around my shoulders; squeezing comfortingly as I rest my head on her shoulder. This is new territory for me, but I don't question it – the both of us need this right now.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Clem," Lilly murmurs shakily, realizing why I'm getting so upset about this. "This won't be another Carley thing, I promise… I've learned since then."

"How can I trust you…?" I mumble into her shoulder as she shrugs with a light chuckle.

"You can't, remember?"

Shaking my head, I release myself from her as she looks at me with a small smirk. Her eyes are a bit teary as well, but this time she's not trying to prove her toughness to me. Like she had told me, there's no point in just trying to be tough all the time. It'll wear you out anyways.

Damn it… this scene feels so familiar. So many people have told me that they wouldn't leave me; that it'd be okay as long as we stuck together. But almost all of those people are dead, and I don't want to lose either of these two very special women in my life. As much as I'd like to think that I could make it on my own, and as much as Jane has drilled that belief into my head, I highly doubt it would work out.

Besides, what's the point of surviving if you have nobody left to fight for?

Lilly suggests that we should all hit the hay after a couple more hours have passed – yes, ALL of us, Jane included. We lock all the potential entry points for walkers to get through, even though Jane mentioned that the only walker she saw was trapped on the pointy end of a chain-link fence. Really though, it's nothing to worry about.

There's a skylight in the roof of this Starbucks, so I look up through the window at the stars as Jane and Lilly get settled. As if it's some practical joke from beyond the grave, the power goes out just before I sit down as the three of us laugh at the irony. The only source of electricity we've had in a long time is gone, but at least it was nice while it lasted.

"That's the Little Dipper, I think," Jane remarks absentmindedly; folding her hands behind her head as she looks up through the skylight. Lilly and I nod in silent agreement, glad that the fighting's stopped for at least another night. Honestly, I felt like the sad, crying child trying to keep their parents from arguing again.

It sucked.

"What's that one over there?" I point out, looking at a pretty set of stars with a long tail flowing at the back.

"It's, umm… Aquarius, I think," Jane says shrugging her shoulders as she ponders it. "Yeah, definitely Aquarius. What? I used to think these were pretty cool as a kid."

"I think that's my horoscope sign," Lilly admits, causing Jane to snort.

"You believed in that kind of stuff?" she asks in a joking manner; the tone having been calmed down a while ago after things got heated.

"When's your birthday?" Lilly inquires, and when Jane says December 21st, she bites her lip and tries to think of which zodiac sign hers is. "I'm pretty sure that makes you a Sagittarius. You know, the guy with the bow."

"Awesome," Jane comments with a smirk before turning to me. "When's your birthday, kiddo?"

"November 5th."

"Scorpio," Lilly tells me, which I think is actually pretty cool even in these circumstances.

"How do you know all of this?" I ask, watching as Lilly crosses her legs over as she relaxes in a more comfortable position. She shrugs her shoulders as she looks at the floor.

"I don't know… I never used to believe in that stuff. But my mom did all the time," she explains as she takes out her dad's wedding ring that she must've taken from him in the meat locker. "After she died, I kind of just wanted to keep a piece of her alive somehow… It was stupid…"

"No, actually," Jane chimes in, surprising the both of us as she gives a slightly sympathetic look towards her. "That's actually kind of cool. You should be proud."

"Yeah," I agree, nodding my head as Lilly rolls the ring around in her fingers before placing it back in her pocket.

The three of us drift off into a peaceful sleep, with Jane and Lilly on one side of the wall with me on the other. As soon as I'm sure that they've fully passed out, I carefully sneak my way over and plop a squat right in between them, and I grin slightly when Jane instinctively leans her shoulder against me. Lilly stays still for most of the night; almost as if the two of us being here gives her some small amount of comfort.

We're all that we've got left in this world – it'd be wrong for us to throw this away.

…..

Well, here we are. New Orleans, Louisiana – apparently this place used to be bopping around a certain time of year. I think Jane said it was called… Marty Grass, or something like that? I don't know, whatever. It's not as if anyone's around to celebrate that now.

But that's not the shitty part about this situation.

The really, really, REALLY bad part is that we're stuck – the truck's stuck in the mud, and by the sounds of it things aren't going so well under the hood. There's steam pouring upwards from underneath it, and Lilly coughs violently as she opens the thing up.

"Try turning it again!" Lilly calls to me as I do what I'm asked, giving it a few turns but with no success. After a few more turns and a cloud of black soot rising up into Lilly's face, she groans and walks a little ways away from the truck in an effort to wipe the stuff off her face. If she wasn't annoyed before, she certainly is now. "Jane! Jane, we need to jumpstart this hunk of junk! I don't want to be stranded out here! Jane!"

"Where'd she go?" I ask, hopping out of the truck and walking over to Lilly.

"The hell if I know!" she remarks bitterly, looking in every direction until her gaze turns up the large hill where she sees someone's shadow. "God damn it, what the fuck is she doing over there?!"

Trudging up the hill (and I mean _trudging_; we're both exhausted from travelling), we both spot Jane just standing there gazing out at something.

"Jane?" I ask carefully, my worry becoming more evident when she doesn't respond. "Jane, are you alright?"

"You might wanna give up on the truck…" she says flatly, but not turning her head as she speaks.

Curious, Lilly and I walk all the way up to where she's standing, and what we see makes Lilly kick a rock down onto the road.

Or should I say _lake_, because New Orleans is almost entirely flooded.

"You've got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Lilly bellows as her voice echoes throughout the area, with none of us really caring if she alerts some walkers right now.

Besides, how can you disagree with her this time?

_AN: There it is, spiderclone! Thank you for the suggestion – your wish is my command lol. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, and there'll be more to come soon! _


	14. I walk the line

Lilly's banging her head repeatedly against a nearby tree, Jane's standing there as if she's watching her house burn down, and I keep looking between the truck and the flooded city. As silly and foolish as this sounds, I really wish that our vehicle could also transform into a submarine or something.

But as cool as that would be, it's sadly not the case.

"Would you quit doing that already?!" Jane barks after the initial shock wears off; glaring at Lilly as she continues to indent her face into the tree. "You're gonna give yourself a concussion!"

"Good! Maybe then I could forget that we ever came up here in the first place!" Lilly snaps, pointing out towards the city. "Try looking me in the eyes and convince me how this is better than going up north! Try it! Because I'm just _ecstatic _to hear you tell me to look on the bright side this time."

"Fighting won't solve anything," I intervene, walking down the hill towards the water, with Lilly and Jane both telling me to stop. "We need to find a way across!"

"Why does this feel like one of those stupid math problems…" Jane groans before the both of them come down to the edge of the water. "Okay, new plan. Clem's right – we need to find a raft or something."

"You're seriously still going through with this?"

"We don't have any choice, Lilly!" Jane yells before stepping into the water and shivering as it goes up just below her stomach. "I don't like this either, but we need to keep moving. There's no going back now."

With an annoyed groan, Lilly reluctantly wades into the water while making sure that I stick in front of her at all times. While the water goes up to their stomachs, I unfortunately am quite a bit shorter than them, so the water goes right to my shoulders. It's freezing in here, and the water's all dirty and gross.

"Watch out for crocodiles," Lilly mentions, which scares me even more. I turn to Jane with worry evident in my voice.

"Are there actually crocodiles in here?"

"There aren't any crocodiles in New Orleans," she replies, which makes me sigh in relief. "It's the alligators you've got to watch out for."

"That's even worse!" I complain, scrunching up my nose when I see some garbage floating in the water.

The lake surrounding us is really murky and kind of scary – you can hardly see a thing, and the problem is that everything's super quiet around here. The only things you can hear are the birds and insects, so there's no really telling of what might lurk below the surface.

The three of us form ripples in the water as we move forward; my clothes soaking wet and sticking to my skin uncomfortably. I really hope we can get out of here as soon as possible.

"So where's this magical raft you said we'd find?" Lilly asks with annoyance, looking each way to make sure we haven't been followed.

"Do I look like some kind of magician to you? I can't just pop one out of mid-air!" Jane retorts, glancing at a stop sign that's half-submerged. Suddenly, I see Jane's body start to sink lower into the water as she stops momentarily. "Umm, Clem? You know how to swim, right?"

"Kind of…" I admit sheepishly, even though that hasn't exactly been a top priority for me ever since the apocalypse happened.

"Here – just hop onto my shoulders for a little while," Lilly instructs, but when I voice my concern about weighing her down, she just brushes it off. "I won't drown, don't worry. But it's safer this way."

Reluctantly, I climb onto her back and sit upon her shoulders as she pushes onwards, maintaining that she's fine when Jane looks over to us.

"Stay close to me, got that?" Jane states, moving forwards as the water gets up to her armpits. Just as I had suspected, the water comes up to Lilly's neck as I sit above her, but she says nothing as we walk. I think she must've gotten her stubbornness from her dad.

So far, we've been sticking to the left in order to avoid going in too deep near the shopping centres. Everything's flooded and ruined, with bodies occasionally floating on the surface and green stuff just sitting there and making this place seem like a swamp.

"How did this happen?" I ask aloud, wondering how a place like this could be torn apart by nature.

Looking over her shoulder momentarily, Jane points southwards before answering me.

"Must've been from the bayou," she explains, "there's a lot of swamps and wildlife over there. When people stopped developing and maintaining the sewer systems, New Orleans probably got overflowed. I reckon most of the animals moved their way in afterwards."

"You're one of those tree-hugger types, aren't you?" Lilly remarks, getting a bitter chuckle out of Jane.

"Ha! Not likely, just making an assumption, that's all," she replies, before pointing upwards a little ways. "Look there! I think that might be our ticket out of here!"

Floating right beside an office building is one of those wooden raft-looking things. You know, the wooden plank kind of things that they put under heavy boxes at the supermarket and places like that? It looks pretty rickety, but hopefully it'll at least keep us up top for a little while until we can get where we need to go.

"Bring it here," Lilly tells her, spitting out water after it reaches her face. Lilly's really not having a very good day. "Ugh, the sooner we get out of here, the better off I'll be! Do you even know where we're going?"

"As long as we keep heading west, then we'll be fine," Jane huffs, bringing our makeshift raft over to the two of us. "You first, Clem. Up and over."

Lilly dunks her head under as I reach the wooden raft with both hands; pulling myself up and stumbling on top as it wobbles around a little bit. This thing isn't quite as sturdy as I thought it would've been.

Once I get settled, then I motion for the two of them to get on next.

Jane climbs aboard first, and Lilly follows suit afterwards, but unfortunately they both climbed on the same side. Their combined weight sends my side flying upwards, and I stumble into the water while Jane and Lilly gasp in fear. Quickly grabbing my hat as it falls off, I make my way to the surface to breathe and just start chuckling at how clumsy the three of us managed to be.

"That didn't go so good," I say splashing water a little bit as I grab Jane's hand and she pulls me up.

"Come on, you little goofball," Jane says as the three of us manage to successfully balance ourselves out after capsizing. We don't have any paddles, but Lilly manages to grab onto a fallen tree branch that's light enough for her to carry, so she uses that instead. Jane volunteers to kick at the back of our little boat in order to get it moving faster, while I'm on the lookout for any potential dangers – be it living or not.

Well, I can't exactly say that I've ever done something like this before – paddling on big, wooden plank through New Orleans. It's like we're on one of those pretend treasure hunts that I used to play with Sandra whenever I got bored and my parents had left. I used to make her wear a hat that we had sitting around at home; leftover from Halloween as a prop. Those sure were the days…

"I remember coming down here for the Mardi Gras festival with my friends one year," Lilly comments as we overlook one of the main streets. Jane lets out a snort for some reason.

"Did any boys give you some beads while you were here?"

"I would've clocked them in the face if they tried," Lilly replies snarkily, causing both of the women to share a small laugh. Am I missing something here?

"Yeah, I could totally see that happening."

"What do beads have to do with anything?" I ask, clearly not understanding what they mean.

This just causes the two of them to chuckle even harder, as Jane pats my back slightly and tells me not to worry about it. I pout my lip and fold my arms across my chest in annoyance. That's what grownups always say when they don't want me to know something!

"I remember they had jugglers over on that corner," Lilly reminisces, pointing with the tree branch over a little ways. I bet it'd look pretty if everything wasn't completely submerged. "There were a whole bunch of gypsies selling their stuff along the row of benches – masks, scarves, that kind of thing."

"Seriously? Gypsies?" Jane asks in surprise, to which Lilly nods her head.

"Surprising, isn't it? They were cool though," Lilly comments, smirking as she recalls old memories. "One of them gave me a bag with some travelling nuts and stuff inside of it – he said it'd help if I ever got the munchies."

"Are you sure there weren't any drugs in that bag?" Jane asks sceptically, to which Lilly shrugs her shoulders.

"Who knows? They tasted pretty darn good to me, anyways."

…

It's grown pretty quiet among the three of us as the sun has slowly started to dip downwards. We're all exhausted, and we'd love nothing more than to just get magically transported to Texas already. It's been a long journey to get here, and for once I'd like to just stay in one spot and live a little bit.

Jane's kicks have gotten slower, not only because she's getting tired but also because it's getting more difficult to see. We don't want something creeping up on us.

The sky is almost too beautiful to be real – it's like one of those professional paintings you would see in some art museums. Various shades of red, orange, yellow and even a little bit of black as night starts creeping in are up in the sky; the clouds looking like great big fireballs of light. Sometimes it's the little things like this that make all the difference, as well as some good company to lead you along.

…Okay, they're good about 60% of the time, that sounds fairer to me.

Looking upon my reflection in the murky depths below, I sigh and look at how much I've changed in the past two years. My cheeks are more hollow after having reduced diets for so long, and everything about me just seems more serious and focused; as if I've had to mature much faster than other girls my age. I remember how annoyed I'd used to get with Sarah, simply because she was living in a world where every choice you made was either life or death; yet she still somehow managed to have the same personality as a kid. I don't think that I was jealous – more concerned about what would happen if she didn't grow up in time.

And the day that Sarah died, Jane had taught me something pretty important.

Not everyone is built the same way. Not everyone is able to survive out here; able to cope with so much loss and just keep on fighting. Sarah certainly wasn't built that way, neither was Duck, and from the sounds of things neither was Jane's sister, Jaime. At one point I didn't think that _I _was built that way either, and I was so scared after shooting Lee that I'd end up getting swallowed by this hell and get spit right back out again.

I guess my transformation just came without me even really noticing that it happened. Maybe that's a part of what growing up is about.

Glancing back down again, I frown in confusion. Is that _really _what I look like? When did I get all this blood and gunk on my face…?

Not thinking quickly enough, a walker lunges out of the water and grabs a hold of my arm; twisting it around and snapping its jaws in order to make me a bedtime snack.

"HELP!" I cry out, not being able to reach for my gun without getting the chomp. Lilly starts whacking the walker's head in with the tree branch, while Jane takes out her knife and slices the beast's arm clean off. The walker falls back into the water as the grotesque limb sits resting on our raft. I quickly kick it off as Jane pulls out a gun.

"No!" Lilly stops her, pointing to Jane's knife. "Use that instead. We don't want to draw them all to us."

"Draw who to us? This is the only one… we've seen…"

One by one, the walkers start popping out of the water randomly like trout swimming upstream, as the three of us huddle closer together in order to keep away from their bites. This reminds me so much of that Scooby Doo movie where the zombies come out of the ground and the mud…

Now that I mention it, that movie took place in Louisiana! Wow, what are the chances?

"Don't let them get close!" Lilly yells as she rapidly starts to paddle forward; the walkers hot on our trail as they slowly edge towards our raft. "Shoot them if you have to, just don't let them drag you down! If you fall, you're dead!"

Jane normally would probably come back with a sarcastic response, but she's probably right this time. There are walkers literally _everywhere_, and they'll probably get to you if you fall off.

I fire three bullets into the brains of some pursuing walkers before having to reload. Jane does the same as Lilly smacks a walker straight across the face with the branch before pressing onwards.

This would be the one Olympic sport that nobody would sign up for – river rafting while shooting down walkers. First place would have to be a house and a fancy car along with $1,000,000, and they probably wouldn't need a second or third place trophy because they'd most likely be dead. Morbid, I know, but it's true.

Anyways, as we move closer to the shore and to temporary freedom, Lilly tells us to just get off the raft and make a run for it out into the swamp area. It's muddy and gross, but there's no other way around as far as we know. Lilly and I hop off the board quickly, but Jane slips on the plank and goes face-first into the water, with walkers close behind. Instantly turning around, I shoot two of the walkers that have almost reached Jane, and Lilly goes over to help her stand back up.

We sprint deep into the swamp, past all the shrubbery and trees as we disrupt the local wildlife. Bugs and fish scatter as we move forwards with a herd of walkers straggling along behind us. I hear a frog croaking like crazy as a walker sinks its teeth into its body, but that only causes me to move faster until my lungs start to give out.

Huffing and puffing, I just barely avoid a fallen log as I stop and look around. Where the hell are Lilly and Jane?!

"Oh no… oh no, oh no, oh no!" I mutter nervously; eyes widening as some lurkers advance upon my position. I swear under my breath when I hear the click of my gun, indicating that once again I'm out of bullets. Not bothering to reload right now, I turn tail and run further into the swamps, hoping by some miracle that Jane and Lilly are somewhere close by.

Lilly is, at least, but as luck would have it she's stuck in a thick layer of mud, and seems to be struggling to squirm out of it.

"Clem! Jesus, I thought I lost you back there!" she says, grunting as she tries moving with no luck. "Urgh… this is hopeless! I'm stuck!"

"Give me your arm!" I tell her urgently, worry only increasing as the both of us hear the infamous groans of nearby walkers. "Lilly, you have to listen to me! I'm not abandoning you, so just give me your hand!"

Not bothering to argue (since it would result in two needless deaths), she reaches outwards as the two of us touch fingertips. Damn, if only I could grow longer arms! Seeing no other option, I slowly move forwards and inch my way towards her despite Lilly telling me not to.

"You're gonna get stuck, too! Just go back!" she pleads, watching as a walker starts to make its way through the trees.

"How many times do I have to say this?!" I ask her, grabbing onto her arm and roughly pulling back as her legs start to break free of their prison. When she finally does get out of the sticky situation, she lands on top of me as I bang my shoulder onto the ground painfully.

I think I just heard something snap…

"Shit! Come on, Clem! Let's – "

"GET BACK, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" the both of us hear Jane screech out, as Lilly shoots down a walker and follows the source of the noise. I tag along, clutching my hurt shoulder and wincing when I move it around too much. I hope nothing's broken…

When we finally catch up to her, Jane's knee-deep in water and trying to fight off four walkers all by herself. Their jaws snap hungrily as she takes one down with her knife, but the second one lunges at her as she collapses into the water; the walker still on top of her.

"JANE!" I screech out, running over to her as Lilly starts to finish off the remaining walkers around us. The water splashes everywhere as I flail about and try to get to my friend as quickly as humanly possible. There's fighting going on beneath the surface, and Jane's trying her hardest to grapple with the beast and give her some time.

The knife she was using glimmers as it's stuck in the mud, so I quickly pull it out and run to the walker. Jabbing it in the back of the head, Jane throws the monster off and rises to the surface; gasping for air as her chest moves up and down.

She looks as though she's in shock, so Lilly's suspicion grows tenfold as I ask if she's alright.

"Did you get bit?" Lilly asks sharply, moving towards her with a serious expression.

"No…"

"Jane?"

"I said no, damn it!" Jane yells, smacking Lilly's hand away and slowly standing up. She wipes the mud and gunk off of her jeans before shivering due to her soaked clothes. "I'm fine – just freezing my ass off, that's all."

Beckoning for Jane and I to follow her, Lilly keeps her gun at the ready as I look at Jane worriedly.

"Don't worry about me, Clem," she whispers in a soothing tone. "It's not as if this is anything new. We risk our lives every day."

"I guess…" I grunt, trying not to roll my shoulder as I grind my teeth together. Man, this hurts!

"Looks like you got banged up pretty good," Jane remarks, not missing a beat as I stubbornly tell her that I'll be okay. "Clem, if you're hurt then we need to stop. Lilly, hold on a sec!"

"We're not safe out here! Not with those walkers lurking around!" she fires back without turning around, scanning the area before moving forward.

"Fucking asshole…" Jane swears before reluctantly walking forward with me. "If that gets worse, you let me know, alright? No exceptions."

"Fine…" I agree quietly, trying my best not to look like I'm in as much pain as I actually am.

We walk forward for another fifteen minutes or so before finally seeing some real progress. I don't know how, but we've managed to make it out of New Orleans and almost out of the bayou. It's just a little bit further until we hit the land, and Jane's encouraging me onwards.

And of course, a walker happens to be sitting trapped underneath a nearby rock and trips me over; causing me to land on my bad shoulder and scream out in pain as Jane stabs it with her knife.

Well, at least now Lilly's stopped for a bit.

"Lemme see," Jane commands, rolling me over carefully and lowering my collar a little bit. Once she looks at my shoulder, she winces and sucks air inwards.

"How bad… is it?" I ask, making occasional crying sounds as jolts of pain shoot up my arm.

"You've separated your shoulder pretty badly," she explains, dragging me to the shore as Lilly bends down beside me. "It doesn't look like anything's broken though."

"Well, that's good at least!" I say shakily, trying to look on the bright side as Lilly and Jane eye each other wearily. "What's the matter?"

Biting her lip, Jane shudders and closes her eyes for a moment. She looks as though she's gonna be sick to her stomach.

Lilly, however, sighs and orders me to look over at Jane.

"Why?" I ask as Lilly places one hand on my back and one on my arm. I yelp in pain as she touches a sore spot. "Oww! What are you doing that for?!"

"Just look over at Jane," she repeats herself, and I reluctantly do as she tells me. "Alright, I'll make this quick."

"Make what – AGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" I scream aloud, my voice reverberating out through the fields as unbelievable pain goes through my shoulder. I throw up on the ground as the bone is set back into the socket, causing me to sweat and gasp out as it finally settles.

"Let's get her settled down somewhere for the night," Lilly advises to which Jane quickly nods and helps me to stand. "Texas shouldn't be a day or two away now… Then I can tell you I told you so."

"We'll be fine, Lilly. You just have to have the right attitude," she states, pointing to a run-down farm with rusted tractors and some old hay bales lying around the doors. "There – we'll grab some hay for pillows and rest up for a little while. How are you feeling, Clementine?"

Whimpering and shaking my head, I can't give Jane a verbal answer as we open the barn doors and sit on the floor. Straw itches at my sides, but at least it's soft enough that it doesn't hurt.

Jane takes my hat off and begins to rub my head gently, which is something that I had never thought she'd do as Lilly starts rolling in some of the hay bales.

"Easy, Clem. Just take it easy, alright?" she whispers as I start to calm down a little bit. "Just get some rest – you're gonna need it, kiddo."

She's definitely right on that account, as my eyes become heavier and my brain starts to slow down while I drift off into sleep.

…..

"…_I know you're there, Lee. It's safe to come out," I tell him, swinging back and forth on the swing set as I call out to the trees. Lee brushes the evergreen branches out of his face before smiling at me and joining me on the other swing. I sigh as I silently soar a little bit higher; not a care in the world as I try my best to reach the clouds._

"_Shooting for the moon, are we?" Lee comments as I get some air on this thing. "You might want to put on a space suit for that kind of thing, sweet pea."_

"_Going to space would be so cool!" I remark, smirking as I look up at the starry sky. Not a cloud to be seen; just twinkling, cosmic magic decorates the sky tonight. But I slow down after my elevation causes me to get a little bit woozy. I can't usually stay on these kinds of things for very long before feeling sick._

"_Yeah, yeah it would be," Lee agrees as the both of us look upwards. When a star goes flying across the night sky, Lee immediately points it out as I gaze in wonder. "That's a shooting star."_

"_Wow… I've never seen one before!" I admit, finding it amazing how quickly it moves._

"_Make a wish, Clem," Lee tells me with a smirk, causing me to scratch my chin thoughtfully. _

"_Hmm… alright, I wish – "_

"_No, you're not supposed to tell me silly," Lee says, shaking his head. "Otherwise it won't come true."_

_Rolling my eyes playfully, I relent and do as he tells me. What I really wish for is for things to be normal for a change; no more people getting hurt, and no more losing my family and friends._

_But that's a wish that won't ever come true, since most of them already are dead and gone._

_And Lee…_

"_You're not really here with me, are you?" I ask, already fully knowing that the answer is no. When he shakes his head, I look to the ground sadly as a few tears stain my cheeks. Even after all this time, I still get upset about him._

"_We might not physically be together anymore," Lee says, his expression unwavering as his body starts to fade, "but I live on inside of you, Clementine. Our bond can't be broken, not even by death."_

"_I… I love you, Lee," I tell him with a heartfelt, sombre voice. "I don't want you to go… I miss you so much…"_

"_I love you two, sweet pea," Lee smiles, planting a kiss on my forehead before almost disappearing entirely. "God knows I do."_

I've been playing that dream over in my head for the past two days. Two days of straight walking, and that specific part of the dream refuses to leave my mind as it races over the possibilities. Did Lee really try contacting me in there? Or was my mind just playing tricks on me; making me believe that Lee, in a sense, never left?

Whatever the case may have been, it was a welcome change from the harsh realities of what we've been through, and it certainly helps take my mind off of my shoulder.

Jane managed to wrap it (somehow) with some thin cloth, since obviously you couldn't put a cast on a shoulder even if hospitals were still around. According to her and Lilly, I just need to let it heal properly on its own for a little while, and try not to move my arm around that much. I told them that they really wouldn't get an argument from me – it hurts badly enough as it is.

Jane chuckles slightly and grins as she runs up to the sign, smacking the 'H' for Houston as I smile along with her. Lilly seems shocked that we've actually made it this far alive, but deep down I know that she's pretty thrilled too.

"Still think going up north was a better idea?" I ask as Jane marches on ahead; a bounce in her step as she walks forward with her head held high.

Lilly shrugs and adjusts the backpack over her shoulders as she places her hand near her face to avoid the sand from getting in. "Let's not count our eggs before they've hatched," she comments, frowning as she spots Jane squatting in front of… a cactus? What is she up to?

"Jane? What are you doing?" I ask as she pulls out an empty water bottle from her backpack. We managed to snag two of these bags at a small, roadside shop before getting here, and so far it's helped out quite a bit.

"Let's see if the rumours are true…" she comments before taking out her knife and slicing downwards onto the plant. She winces as the cactus pricks her finger, but she quickly shakes it off and struggles to cut through it. Why she's putting herself through this is anyone's guess.

When she finally does manage to cut some of it off, she peers inside and her smile grows even wider.

"Ha! National Geographic is never wrong!" she proclaims, carefully putting her water bottle downwards and scooping up some water. "It pays to know this stuff when you're out in the desert."

"We're not even really in the desert, to be honest," Lilly chimes in, but not going into an argument as she too dips her water bottle in. I do the same, careful to use my right arm instead of my left.

Once we're satisfied with our catch, the three of us get back on the road and proceed to walk for another hour or so. According to her map, and from what the sign said about this so-called "refuge" a few miles back, Houston Hills shouldn't be very far away from here at all. We won't be going directly into the city itself, which is a shame because I _really _wanted to go check out the space museum if it was safe enough. The place we're heading to is sort of in a sub-area on the outskirts of the city, which is probably a smart thing since they won't get cornered by walkers constantly if they're a safe distance away.

I wonder what this place'll be like… Will it have massive walls with loads of people defending it? Will there be tents pitched up for people to sleep in, and people handing out small plates of food to feed the hungry? Will it be as well-maintained as Howe's was before the walkers came and claimed it for themselves?

Or will this be another crap-hole, just like most places left in the US? I seriously hope not.

"Should be just over this hill," Jane says, telling us to have our guns out just in case things go badly. "No sudden moves, alright? We stay together, and if anything feels unsafe, then we leave and find someplace else."

"You were trying to convince me on how safe this place would be!" Lilly snaps, to which Jane simply rolls her eyes.

"There are no guarantees anymore, shit for brains! We'll just do what we can. It's not as if we've got a baby to lookout for anymore…"

As soon as she utters those words, her eyes go wide and she looks towards me apologetically. I simply stare at the ground and don't say a word; hearing Jane mutter an apology under her breath as Lilly heavily sighs. I really don't want to relish anything on AJ – I've been trying to block him from my memory recently. Every time I think of that sweet, innocent baby boy, I feel sharp pangs of guilt take over my stomach.

I've got enough problems as it is right now – I don't want to add any more.

Silently, the three of us make it up this last stretch of hill; hope in our hearts… but doubt in our minds.

This place… it just looks like a rich person's house. The white-washed wooden boards stick out like a sore thumb from everything else around here, and it looks as though it's almost been untouched. There are no tents, no survivors cooking their meals over a fire, nothing. If you had stayed here for the past two years, you might never have even known that there was an apocalypse. It's that untouched.

"No… This can't be right," Jane mutters, shaking her head as she sprints forward to the house's big-ass lawn. I tell her to stop, which thankfully she does, but she's constantly reading and re-reading the directions and description of this place over and over again. "There's no such thing as a free lunch – why does this place look so clean? This… it's too much of a good thing. Why aren't there any people patrolling?!"

"You're telling me… we came all this way; went through four fucking states to get here, just so that we could look at somebody's fucking HOUSE?!" Lilly hisses darkly, her agitation boiling by the minute. She's like a pot of unchecked Kraft Dinner – leave it too long and it'll overflow.

"Lilly, calm down… There's got to be a reason for this…"

"Don't you tell me to calm down, Clem!" she glares menacingly, causing me to step back and give her some space. "That is the very LAST thing that I need to hear right now!"

"Leave her out of this, you crazy bitch!" Jane says, getting in between us and standing up for me as she confronts Lilly. "You know what? We should've dumped your ass in Atlanta when we had the chance! Would've been a hell of a lot more peaceful to get here, and we wouldn't have you biting at our heels every fucking step of the way! Don't snap at an eleven year old just because you're angry! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"You… are getting on my last fucking nerve, Jane! I've had it up to here with you!"

"Ooh, I'm so scared! What are you gonna do, Lilly? Shoot me like you did to that Carley chick I keep hearing about?" she reprimands as Lilly's face contorts in seething anger. "Go ahead and try! See where that gets you! Obviously that'll make you feel better, since that seems to be your sick way of dealing with your issues! Go ahead, Lilly! Do it! Show Clementine the monster that you really are!"

Lilly's about to pull the trigger, when all three of us are interrupted by a man in a white tuxedo, black dress pants, dress shoes and brown, slicked-back hair. He looks like some kind of business tycoon, and he's surrounded by at least ten other people – all heavily armed.

"Well, ain't you folks a long way from home?" he remarks, putting his hand in his jacket pocket before pulling out a lighter and a big Cuban cigar. As he lights it, he sticks the thing in his mouth and breathes in before blowing out a big puff of smoke. Gross. "Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? The name's Jonathon Crowley, although you fine honeys can just call me Papa John. Everyone does – I reckon it's some kind of running gag."

None of us speak, so Papa John turns to the side and gestures to the house right in front of us.

"I'm guessing y'all were looking for shelter, weren't ya? Read my sign, you did!" he smirks, placing the cigar in between two of his fingers. "Ain't she a thing of beauty? Built by my forefathers ages ago, and it's been passed down in my family for generations. Now, since this whole critter business is going on, what with the dead walking about and all, we've managed to open up some livin' spaces for people like yourselves."

Why does this feel a hell of a lot like the St. John's?

"Why haven't you fortified this place?" Jane asks suspiciously, not trusting this guy in the slightest. "Walls, people on watch, boards on the windows… you've got none of that stuff. Why?"

"Don't really have a reason to, sweetheart!" he says with a shrug of his shoulders. I don't like where this is going. "We've got enough protection as it is. There ain't too many of them critters lurking about 'round these parts, as you can see."

"Then why do you need them?" Lilly asks, motioning to Papa John and his troop of heavily armed men and women, all looking as though they'd kill us without a second thought if asked. Some of them look as though they're itching for a fight.

"Ahh, well you see… Here comes the not so fun part," he says, putting his cigar back in his mouth while motioning towards us. "I'm afraid that I'm gonna have to ask you to lower your weapons – I just had this coat washed yesterday, and I'd hate to get any of your blood stains on it. And don't think about resisting, ladies. As you can see, it won't end well for you."

Locked and loaded, Papa John's security force aim their various weapons – pistols, assault rifles, shotguns and all – towards us, and as I look towards Jane and Lilly, I sigh and drop my gun to the ground. Jane and Lilly look _really _pissed off about it, but they both reluctantly drop their guns as well. We've been forced to surrender without even firing a shot.

"Hmm… yeah, I reckon you three ladies will fetch a mighty fine price," he smirks, nodding his head as the security team force us to our knees and proceed to tie our hands behind our backs. When I yelp out in pain due to my shoulder, one of the people tell me to shut up before banging my head with the side of their gun. I'm almost certain that my head's bleeding as I wince after the blow.

"Don't you fucking touch her!" Jane yells as one of the guards come over and aim their rifle towards her. Before doing anything, however, the man looks toward Papa John, who nods for the go-ahead. The security officer shoots Jane right in the leg, causing her to scream out in pain and agony.

Lilly and I widen our eyes in horror, but say nothing as more guns are trained upon us. Jane's in a shit-ton of pain right now; you can see it in her eyes as her face contorts in pain and anger. But trying to fight back isn't going to help now.

Wait, what did he mean by _fetch a nice price? _

"Blind 'em," Papa John orders, and my world goes dark as they put a cloth hood over my face that blocks my vision. That combined with the blow to the head I just inflicted is making my head spin slightly.

"I'm sorry that it had to come to this ladies, but I've got a business to run," he explains as I'm forced to stand back up. "And nobody fucks with Papa John. Get 'em on the truck – Sandro wants a new batch of workers over to Mexico by morning."

The last thing I remember before blacking out is Jane grunting in pain and Lilly struggling against her captors. My head hits the ground, and my vision fades into nothingness.

_AN: Alright, that's the end of book two. It was a lot to get through, I know, so thank you for sticking with it! Things are gonna get interesting from here on out, so please be sure to drop a review! _

_Leafs nation _


	15. Folsom prison blues

_AN: I don't know a lick of Spanish, and I had to use Google translate in order to find out some words, so just try to bear with me on this! Btw, I'm going to name the rest of the songs after southern-sounding songs – feel free to listen to them while reading this if you'd like!_

…Urgh… Where… where am I?

Why is everything so dark in here? I can't see a thing…

I feel myself getting dragged along, but I can't do anything to fight back. Where are they taking me? Am… am I dead?

"_Volver lejos de la puerta!" _roars someone angrily, banging against some metal bars. "Away! Back from the gate, NOW!"

The hooded cloth is suddenly yanked off of my face as my eyes try to adjust to the surroundings. Dark, damp and musty… metal bars trapping in three other grown men… is this a prison? What am I doing in a place like this?

"In," the guard orders in a thick Spanish accent, just like everyone else around here. I'm roughly tossed to the ground as the dust surrounds my face. And just as quickly as I'd heard the guard, he's gone just as fast as he shuts the jail door behind me; locking it and heading out.

Slowly looking upwards, I see two of the men talking amongst themselves while occasionally looking my way and sniggering – these guys give me the creeps. The third man – a huge, bald beast of a fellow – lays in his bed with his back facing the rest of us, as if he doesn't have a care in the world.

Not wanting to sit face down in the dirt any longer, I shakily pick myself up and keep to myself; sitting on a wooden bench and wrapping my arms around myself. My hat's on the other side of the holding cell, but it's much too far for me to reach it from here. I fell lost and bare without it – my hat pretty much defines who I am these days. My gun and backpack are gone, too, which doesn't really surprise me at all to be frank.

"_Carne fresca!" _one of the other inmates says while his buddy laughs along with him. I have no idea what they're saying, but whatever it is, it's not friendly. Their beards are unshaven and they look incredibly dirty and ratty in those clothes. I can smell them from over here.

"_Quien es usted?" _the man asks me, but I look at him blankly as he and his friend slowly walk towards me. "Oh, umm… who are you?"

"Why do you care?" I ask quietly, not in the mood to be talking right now. I'd give anything for Lilly and Jane to be here with me right now.

"I ask first, _mi amigo_," he says while taking a seat beside me on the bench. The other man takes a seat to my right as he wraps his arm around my shoulders. "You and us, we will be together for long time – should know our names, yes?"

"Please don't touch me…" I tell him, shrugging his arm off as I stare at the ground in discomfort. "I don't want any trouble…"

Glancing to his partner, the two of them smirk before patting my back as the other guy places his hand upon my knee. Danger, danger! Red alert!

"Such a pretty flower, you are…" he mumbles lowly, brushing his hand softly against my hair as the other man traces circles upon my leg. "I haven't met a girl like you in a very, _very _long time. And we haven't _been _with one for even longer…"

"Wh-what are you doing?!" I ask shakily, trying my best to get away but not getting any results. The big guy on the bed stirs a little bit as his ears perk up, but still he doesn't move. "Just… leave me alone!"

Snickering sinisterly, the two of them do as I ask as I break out of their grasp; still traumatized and more than a little bit freaked out at this point. What the hell was that all about?!

This is hopeless – there's no way that I can just break out of here and run, since my pistol is long gone along with all the rest of my supplies. The only window in this cell is boarded up tightly, with a few cracks in between so that you can tell if it's day or night outside. Obviously it's getting pretty late, since no sunlight is peeking through.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, the big guy in the bed sits upwards and looks at me for a second before turning towards a security guard with a small tray of food. It only takes a glimpse at the large man to see that he's got quite a few scars on the right side of his face – from what exactly I'm not sure. The guard simply slides it underneath the bars, spits on the ground in front of me and walks away menacingly. What a jerk!

Like three hungry hyenas, the men sit on the floor and quickly munch on whatever shitty meal they've been served – it looks like a piece of undercooked chicken and some rice, but it really looks disgusting. Nevertheless, they continue to eat it as if it's their last meal on earth.

"You may want to eat, pretty flower," the sick, twisted man with blonde hair and the shaggy beard chirps at me. "You won't be getting another meal for a long while."

"It's Clementine," I tell him bitterly, glaring as I reluctantly sit on the edge of their little circle. It's not as if I have much choice. "And why would you want to help me?"

"Because they want to keep you nice and healthy," his friend replies, stuffing his face with as much of his share as he can get. By the time the three of them finish, the bulldozer has already grunted before heading back into the bed; leaving me with the two weirdoes watching me as I eat the remaining scraps. It's not much, but it'll have to do.

"They gonna work you real good out there," blondie tells me, causing me to frown in worry. "You should… enjoy… your stay. This is home now for you, Clementine – we want to welcome you."

"I'm gonna be sick…" I complain, kicking over the tray and quickly heading to the corner, trying to block out the sounds of their evil laughter as they once again converse in Spanish. I've never felt so afraid in my entire life – the walkers are more hospitable than these guys.

Whatever, hopefully once the morning comes I can find Lilly and Jane, so that we can all escape this hellhole and get back home somehow.

But it'd still help if I actually knew where we are…

…

I'm awoken in the middle of the night by the brown-haired man playing with my ear and causing me to squirm away from him. His blond buddy eggs him on as he continues to harass me; poking my arms and rubbing his greasy fingers against my face.

As soon as he flips me onto my back, my eyes grow wide his terror as the two of them surround me.

"Why are you doing this?!" I ask pitifully, trying to break free of the man's grasp as he disgustingly kisses my cheek. "Stop! GET OFF OF ME!"

"We are just getting started, my pretty flower!" the blonde man grins wickedly, licking his lips as the brown-haired guy places his hand over my mouth. Thinking quickly, I bite down onto his finger as hard as I can until I draw blood, causing him to yell out in pain as he smacks me across the face with his other hand.

"_Sujetarla!" _he bellows as I crawl my way back to the wall and try to avoid these creepy monsters. People have had nightmares about this sort of thing. The blond man manages to trap me against the wall as the brown-haired guy pulls out some sort of sharp, tiny object from his pant pocket. "Don't resist, little girl – this will all be over soon."

"GO AWAY!" I scream, trying to break my way out of his firm grip as the other guy puts his hand up my shirt and touches my stomach. He cuts a piece of my poncho near the bottom as their eyes darken considerably. Why do they look… hungry?! "JANE! LILLY! HELP MEEEE!"

"Nobody will hear your screams, Clementine! Just stay calm, and we will – "

The brown-haired guy is cut off as the mountain man picks him up by his collar and slams his face against the metal bars. When the guy collapses, he picks him up again and slams his face into the concrete floor; sending blood to come pouring out of his nose as the blade thing falls out of his grasp. Mountain man (as I'm calling him) punches the sicko three times in the face before digging into his eyeball and pulling upwards as hard as he can. The creep screams in absolute agony as the mountain snaps his arm in two places with a sickening crack.

Meanwhile, the blonde guy has gotten over his initial shock, picked up the blade and charged towards the mountain. He manages to cut the big guy's arm pretty good, but honestly it doesn't even seem like it fazes the guy. It must just be the adrenaline kicking in. Mountain man punches Blondie straight in the throat as he collapses and starts choking before getting tackled to the ground. The mountain repeatedly kicks him square in the chest and throat until he starts to squirt blood out of his ears, mouth and nose; uttering one last gulp of breath before going completely still.

The brown-haired dude is still squirming about on the ground as he desperately tries to put his eye back into the correct position, but screams in fear as the mountain drags him over to the wooden bench. I scoot away as he approaches, still quivering after everything that's just happened.

When he's fully satisfied that I'm out of his way, the mountain holds the monster over his head before slamming him downwards – face-first into the bench as his back bends like an accordion.

To make sure that neither of his victims come back, he takes the dropped blade, strikes down into their brains and wipes the blade off on his pants before dropping it to the floor. As I let out an uncontrollable gasp (as I hadn't realized that I had started hyperventilating), Mountain man gives me one last look out of the corner of his eye. Nodding slightly and letting out a grunt, he walks over to his bed and lays in it as if nothing ever happened.

As for myself, I breathe heavily and fold my knees up to my chest as I shakily look between the two dead men in our prison cell. I don't want to know what they were planning on doing to me, but thankfully I won't have to worry about that anymore. Their blood spills out onto the concrete surrounding them until it empties into the little drain they've got in the middle of the floor. I'm starting to think they put that there in case this kind of situation ever occurred.

Glancing over at the massive guy across from me, deep down I want to thank him for doing that. Yeah, you heard right. I want to thank him for murdering two of our fellow prison inmates. It sounds weird and wrong when I say it, but it's true. However… I don't have the strength, courage or willpower right now to go over and thank that man. I think a part of me is afraid of pissing him off – I've now seen what he can do.

So instead, I cradle my knees further to my chest, bury my face in my arms and let some tears flow down non-stop. This is horrible… and if it's any indication, this is only the beginning.

Jane, Lilly… where are you?

…..

The next morning, two of the security guards had woken me up after they started shouting – enraged that two of their prisoners had been massacred so brutally. Immediately, they had sprung into the cell and lined the two of us up for questioning. It actually looked really funny seeing the size difference between us, and it wasn't really any secret who had killed the creepy sickos who tried to… well, I'm still not frankly sure.

However, it was even funnier watching as the guards backed up in fear when they tried to discipline him. The mountain man sent a glare towards the security guard; practically daring him to try something. I'm pretty sure if he wanted, this guy could snap these punks like a twig and just slaughter everything that moved outside. Yet, he does none of those things, and simply complies as the security guards order us to come outside. I quickly pick up my hat and put it back upon my head before doing anything else, though.

"What… why do we need this stuff?' I ask as the both of us are handed a pair of gloves and some sharp plyers.

"Work," the guard barks, glaring fiercely at me as I'm shoved out into the blinding, burning sunlight. This feels a lot hotter than Texas was when we first arrived. "Field, go, now!"

Squinting, I hold my hand in front of my face until my eyes fully adjust to the harsh sunlight. Once I can actually see, I scan the area to see just how large this place actually is – it's frickin huge. There are massive field ranges surrounding us, plus the prison buildings, some offices up ahead and then… the fence. Oh god, the fence – I know exactly where I am.

Mexico… right along the border of the US. Lilly had told me about this once, saying how tight the security used to be before all the walkers came along.

Speaking of which…

The walkers are on the other side of the fence; some clawing at the fence while others wander about the desert area aimlessly. There's a ton of them out there, but nobody seems to be paying them any mind! Even the guards up in the watchtowers don't seem worried.

I look to my right to ask the mountain a question, but he seems to not pay me any mind as he walks out into the field and starts to cut plants; putting them in a sack and repeating the process while others do the same beside him.

Not wanting to get smacked around again, I follow the mountain's lead and go to a different row of crop-pickers. They didn't even give me any instructions on what I'm supposed to be doing, but maybe it's just like what Reggie showed me back then. Bending downwards, I begin to cut off some of the vegetables and place them in a sack, though it's tough to do since the plants are so prickly. I suppose that's what the gloves are for, though.

After doing this for another five minutes or so, I lift my head up and look around at all the different people; praying that I see Jane and Lilly alive and well. Twirling my head in all directions, I stop when I come to a row of crop pickers – one of which is skinny, tall and has kind of long, brown hair…

"Lilly!" I call out but immediately getting shushed by one of the guys beside me. Sure enough, Lilly does look up and places a relieved hand over her mouth when she sees me, but motions for the two of us to act like we're actually doing something.

"Keep your voice down!" the man beside me hisses, rolling his eyes as he continues to work. "_Maria, Jesus y Jose_… Are you trying to get shot over here?"

"What is this place?" I ask him quietly, pretending to work as a security guard looks towards me for a moment.

"Stupid newbies do not know anything!" one of the other guys snap, but he's shushed by the man beside me.

"Quiet, Marcus! Hush!" he tells him before turning back towards me. "My name is Mikael, and this is a Mexican hell, is what it is! Prison of the worst kind – little food or water, and nobody bats an eye when a worker dies from the heat. Most of us just call it the Slave Pen. If anybody steps out of line, they shoot you or toss you out there…"

He gestures back towards the fence, and I gulp as I see what he means. Getting shot would be a much nicer punishment than getting eaten by walkers.

"I'm Clementine," I tell him, to which Mikael rolls his eyes.

"Good for you."

"How can you understand me so well?"

"What? Do you think every person here cannot speak any fucking English?" Mikael growls, but not really seeming angry about it. More just ticked. "Quit being so ignorant, child – it will not get you far, not around here."

Sighing heavily, I glare frustratingly at the plant before picking some more vegetables that I've never seen before.

"What the hell is this stuff?" I ask, more so to myself than anyone in particular, but Mikael answers anyways.

"Tobacco," he states simply, "surely you have seen this before?"

When I shake my head, Mikael simply chuckles and rubs his eyes in exhaustion, causing me to get even more annoyed with the guy.

"You know, just because you've been here longer doesn't mean you have to be such a jerk!" I hiss quietly, hoping in my naïve mind that it'll get him to feel bad or something.

Obviously it doesn't work.

"You won't last a week out here…" he remarks bitterly, moving down to another plant as he wipes the sweat off his forehead. "Maybe it's time to check out that attitude of yours, _Clementine_. It'll do you some good in the long run."

"I don't care what you think," I remark with a tone of hostility, "I just need to find my friends."

"Friends? You shouldn't concern yourself with others' wellbeing at this point."

"Just because you don't have any doesn't mean you should tell me to abandon mine as well. I need to find them!"

"If you want you and your so-called "friends" to stay safe, then you had best keep your mouth shut and your head down," Mikael lectures me, as I glance over nervously at Lilly. "Don't draw attention to yourself, or to them. The best thing you can do is to just do as you're asked and get on their good side."

Ha! As if these people actually _have _a good side! But… unfortunately… Mikael's got a point. It won't do me any good right now to act out and get myself or the other two killed. I'll just have to play my cards right, and wait for an opening.

Because I sure as hell am not staying here for the rest of my life, however long that might be.

Looking behind me, I notice that the mountain is still working diligently, not complaining or speaking to anyone as he tries to cut the tobacco leaves. His hands are big and clunky for the job though, so he ends up with huge chunks that he places in the bag after he finishes.

"What's his name?" I inquire, watching his handiwork as Mikael turns around. Once he realizes who it is I'm talking about, his eyes go wide and he shakes his head.

"Just leave him be; that's Dominic," he explains, making it sound as though he's nothing but bad news. "The man's a teddy bear when he wants to be… until you piss him off. I heard that he crushed two guys' heads in last night in one of the cells. Wouldn't surprise me – those two were asking for it."

"I know he did… I was in the room when he killed them."

"_Ay carumba…" _Mikael grimaces, shaking his head and turning towards me. "Let me give you a piece of advice, Clementine: don't cross him, alright? You piss off the wrong person around here, and they'll put you in the ground."

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind," I reply hesitantly, looking over to Lilly one last time before returning to my work.

…..

After a long, hard day of forced labour, I slowly walk back to the prison buildings with a heavy heart and mind. Recent events have taken their toll, and I'm still not sure how I'm able to even stand.

Just as I'm about to retire for the night (and spend another evening trapped with Dominic), I see Lilly ushering me to come talk to her in between some of the buildings. Making sure that I'm not being watched just yet, I rush over to Lilly and hug her in relief.

"After you blacked out we weren't sure what to expect," Lilly explains, placing one hand on my shoulder and the other checking my face. "Fucking assholes… I can't believe they did this to you! Are you alright?"

"I'm… okay," I tell her uneasily, not sure how to explain myself when Lilly gives me a doubtful look. "Lilly… have you ever been… _touched_, by a guy before?"

"Clem, what the fuck happened…?"

"There were two of them; two really weird and scary guys who were in the prison with me. They were calling me strange names and making me uncomfortable," I admit while rubbing my shoulder and looking downwards; feeling slightly ashamed.

Lilly listens with intent as I continue, even though she seems to know where this might be headed.

"They started… touching me – in my hair, on my face and my leg. And then the one guy said that he'd never been with a woman before… so they trapped me against a wall…"

"Jesus Christ…" Lilly breathes out, shutting her eyes tightly and swearing under her breath. "Did they do… anything else to you, Clem? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No… this big guy was also in the cell with us. He… he crushed their heads when the other two were grabbing me. They're dead," I tell her, tears brimming my eyes as I explain this whole story to her. "Lilly… did I screw up somehow? Did I do something wrong?!"

"Clem, listen to me, okay? You didn't do a damn thing wrong," she soothes, patting my shoulder reassuringly as she struggles not to freak out about this. "But if anyone tries to do something like that again, be prepared to defend yourself, but also come straight to me. I'll tear the fucker apart."

Nodding silently, I try to control myself before I have to head back to my prison. Nothing would make me happier than heading back with Lilly, but the both of us know how that would turn out – death.

"Where's… where's Jane?" I ask worriedly, having not seen her all day. I only get more concerned when Lilly shrugs her shoulders.

"They split us up on the way over here, but I don't know where they took Jane," she admits sadly, actually seeming rather concerned about her well-being. "Don't worry, Clem. We'll find her, and then we'll gut these assholes if we have to. We just need a plan; a way to get the three of us out of here once and for all."

"Okay…" I reply, nodding as she stands to her full height. "I trust you, Lilly."

"Come on. You know that's a bad idea," Lilly jokes, trying to lighten the mood a little bit as we go our separate ways. Just in time, too – those asshole security guards are edging their way towards us. Lilly rolls her eyes as they yell at her in Spanish, and I glance sadly at her one last time before departing to my resting area.

As soon as I see Dominic through the bars, I sigh and walk my way inside. Even though Mikael told me not to associate with the big guy, I still feel compelled to talk to him. After all, the man did save my life.

"…Hey…" I start off slowly, twirling my foot around awkwardly when he doesn't even glance my way. "I uh… just wanted to, you know, thank you for doing that yesterday. It was uh… really sweet."

Dominic glances my way, nods his head and returns to what he was doing before – whatever that is. Thinking that maybe he doesn't speak a lot of (if any) English, I walk over towards him and peer over his shoulder; trying to get a glimpse of what he's up to.

It seems as though he's got a number of rocks splattered about the ground… how exciting, indeed. For some reason, he's got them lined up on each side, and takes one away before cocking his head to the side in confusion. When I go to tap his shoulder, he quickly turns around and raises his hand up in the air as I wince; waiting for an impact.

When he sees my reaction and looks at his hand, Dominic quickly lowers it and grunts. He most likely feels bad about what those assholes tried to do to me yesterday.

"Do you know how to count?" I ask softly, sitting cross-legged beside the giant as he looks into my golden eyes with embarrassment. Feeling bad for the man, I look down at the rocks and put them back into order. "I can teach you, if you want."

Dominic looks torn, as if he's deciding between just ignoring me completely or taking me up on my offer. When he keeps on looking back and forth between me and the rocks, I hesitantly and gently put my hand on top of his. That seems to calm him down at least a little bit, so I scoot closer to him as I help the fella with his math.

Unfortunately, and I think this goes both ways, I hate math.

But at least we're starting off on the right foot.


	16. Ain't no grave can hold my body down

_AN: For the guest reviews that I can't PM, thank you so much! That was totally amazing what you guys felt about the last chapter, and I really appreciate the support, guys! Also, a bunch of you seem to like Dominic, so I'll explore him a bit more in this chapter._

"Come on, Dom, you've got this!"

"Mmph…"

"Don't pout, big guy," I tell him, folding my arms across my chest as he stares at the pebbles in front of him. "I'm not gonna help you this time – you can figure this one out on your own. Okay, if I have five rocks, and I take two away, how many do I have left?"

Dominic sits there and stares at the tray in front of him as I push two of the five rocks to the side. He frowns in concentration, scratches his head thoughtfully, and stews there; trying his hardest to figure this out.

I wait patiently beside him, having done this sort of thing for the past few days. I'd manage to help him after we finish slaving away out in the field, since it's not like we'd have anything better to do after-hours. He still hasn't said a word to me yet – the only responses that I get are grunts, nods or him shrugging his shoulders. At least he can sort of understand what I'm saying (half the time, anyways).

After looking at it for another thirty seconds or so, Dominic groans in frustration and flips the tray over; sending all of the rocks to go flying around the prison cell. I'm guessing that's his version of giving up on the math problem.

"Dominic!" I complain, laying on my back as I tiredly rub my hands along my face. "It was three! The answer was three, you big lug! Now we've gotta put the rocks back together again…"

"No!"

Immediately sitting upright, I look towards the mountain with wide eyes as he punches a wall – actually causing a small dent. I don't even think the man felt the impact of the blow.

"You… you can talk?" I ask in amazement as he sits down on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands. "Do you… understand me?"

"Me no speak good," he says, and it takes me a minute to understand him through the heavy Spanish accent. I doubt very much that he speaks a whole lot of his native language, let alone English.

Mikael wasn't kidding – the guy's a big, old teddy bear; a gentle giant as long as you don't get on his nerves. As far as I'm aware I haven't done that yet, otherwise he probably would've flattened me into a pancake by now.

"That's okay," I tell him with a small smile, "I think that I speak enough for the both of us, don't you?"

When he cocks his head to the side, completely puzzled, I wave my hand out dismissively.

"Forget it," I say, walking over to sit on the bed with him. "Why are you here, anyways? I mean, where do you live?"

"Home," he replies simply, poking the bed as I shake my head.

"No, I mean like _before _all of this stuff happened. Where did you live?"

"Home!" he repeats himself, smacking the wall behind him with vigor.

This is sad – from what he's telling me, it sounds as though he's been trapped in this prison for quite some time now. How long exactly is a mystery, since there's no way that Dom will be able to tell me – the highest he can count to right now is five, and that's still with my help. I wonder what he did to deserve ending up in a place like this?

"Do you want to try it again?" I ask, sighing as he shakes his head. Looks as though he's had enough for one night, but at least we've gotten somewhere. Dom actually _spoke! _If that's not a step in the right direction, then I seriously don't know what is.

"Well, we'd better get some sleep then. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow," I mention, making a sleep motion with my hands so that he understands. Walking over to my corner of the room, I lay down and try to get as comfy as I can on this lumpy, springy mattress. The sooner that Lilly comes up with a plan to get out and pick up Jane (wherever she might be), the better.

I tell myself that that's going to be my first priority tomorrow – finding Jane and making sure that she's alright. The last thing I remember is her getting a bullet put in her leg, but after that it's all just a blur.

She better be alright… She just better be…

…

It's especially hot out today as the sun beats down our backs – some are feeling it more than others.

It's been literally an hour since we've left the prison barracks, and there have already been three cases of heat stroke. Instead of helping the poor guys out, the guards have shot two of them in the head and tried making an example of the third by sending him out into the desert without any weapons or anything.

The man lasted about ten seconds before getting his arms and legs chewed off.

"That might just be a record…" Mikael mutters to me as everyone gets back to work. I stand and stare at the gate for a few seconds more – wondering how we could've possibly fallen so low – before joining him back in the field.

In the row sits me, Lilly (who's made sure to stay close to me ever since we reunited), Mikael, Dominic and that Marcus fellow who I tend to shy away from. He still thinks that I'm some useless kid who's going to get the rest of them killed if I don't have a gag in my mouth or something. He's the asshole of this row, I'm almost certain.

"Try thinking about the coldest places you know," I advise to Lilly, who simply chuckles dryly and rolls her eyes. "I'm serious! Just imagine that you're swimming in the ocean with some penguins while also riding on the back of a polar bear. It works like a charm!"

"You've got some imagination there, Clem," Lilly shakes her head before turning back to her work. She may have just brushed me off, but I still hear her mutter "Penguins" before placing her haul in the bag. I grin mischievously as I wipe the sweat from my eyes.

At least I've still got my hat to keep me cool. The others aren't so fortunate.

"We need to get out of here as fast as possible," Lilly remarks as the both of us hear Mikael (along with a couple of strangers) snort and chuckle. "Something funny, fellas? I wasn't joking, you know."

"The chances of you getting out of here alive are slim to none," Mikael states his opinion, not caring that Lilly glares intensely at him. "Many have tried to break out before you… all of them, fools. They think there's some magical refuge awaiting them – some even believe that the gated fence is the holy gate to heaven and freedom. But as soon as they step out of line, _El Diablo _comes to snatch them away."

"You're speaking figuratively, right?" Lilly questions as she looks over at Marcus. He's sweating enough to fill a couple of buckets, as his lips look parched and dry. "The devil? Seriously?"

"The fucker's name is Sandro…" Mikael remarks bitterly, shaking his head in anger. "He is the self-proclaimed ruler of this place, and what he says goes around here. Some say that hell sent him back because of how ruthless and cruel he can be."

"What did he do?" I inquire, smiling appreciatively at Dominic as he helps me cut off a tough branch.

Mikael closes his eyes tightly and exhales sharply before muttering that he doesn't want to talk about it.

"I refuse to live back on that memory; to dwell on that grief… It pains me every day."

"Which is why we should all bolt!" Lilly argues, cutting off a branch and tossing it carelessly behind her. "If this asshole's as bad as you say he is, then what's the point in staying here?! We outnumber him and his goons by at least three to one!"

"Don't you get it? This has already been attempted!" Mikael hisses, telling Marcus to shush when he begs for nourishment. "This place has been a prison long before the cursed ones came."

"Walkers?" I ask, to which he shrugs his shoulders.

"Around here, we call them the cursed ones – the people who've lost their way, and are trapped inside the bodies of those beasts."

"Walkers aren't people. Whoever they were in a past life is dead," Lilly deadpans, moving over to the next plant. Seriously, how many of these crops do they need?

"I am not going to debate philosophy with you, American," Mikael sighs, "but regardless, this place has housed criminals for generations. I myself have been here for five years, but Dominic over there was born into this hell. Sandro has been the overseer for some thirty years now."

Looking over at the big guy, Dominic simply ignores the fact that people are talking about him and continues to work. He may not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he's got nerves of steel, I'll give him that.

"Well I'm not going to sit here and be a slave to some fucking twisted asshole! I thought we were past this sort of shit!"

"To them, it is as if the world did not change at all," Mikael shakes his head sadly. At least he's civil enough for now. "To them, it just means that they will have less customers for their plantation."

"So you're telling me this whole prison is some sort of plantation business? And they were getting away with it?" Lilly asks in disbelief, finding the whole concept a bit hard to grasp. Mikael nods his head.

"The town nearby would allow it as long as some of the profits were donated to the local economy. Instead of money these days, they trade the crops we pick for weapons and ammunition from the States. Every prisoner they brought in through that gate would be forced into labour – just like we are now."

"But we didn't even do anything!" I retort, suddenly feeling even angrier about this than I was before. "All we did was show up at some guy's house and get kidnapped! We're survivors, not slaves!"

"Call it what you will," Mikael grimaces, "but you are here now, and that's all that matters in the end. No matter what road you may have taken, you are still a part of the system. Face it, Clementine – you're one of us."

"Not for long…" Lilly mutters, to which I nod in agreement. Staying here will just be a death sentence.

Mikael rolls his eyes and gets back to work whilst shaking his head in disapproval. Clearly he knows more about this place than he's letting on.

"I'll believe that escape is possible when I see it with my own eyes."

_BANG!_

Another person is dropped dead some four rows behind us – a woman, by the looks of things. The sad part is that none of us really flinch at this anymore. It's sad, but that's just how the world works these days.

"Water…" Marcus mumbles, his voice and body getting weaker by the second as he drops the plyers uselessly to the ground. In an instant, Mikael tells him to stand up, and it's not hard to see why. Given the current track record, anyone who isn't able to work is seen as a liability in their eyes.

Suddenly we all hear shouting, as a grey-haired, stern-looking bastard of a man comes storming outside; muttering profanities in his native language. He's got a pair of shades on, but he quickly puts them in his pocket as he furiously gives the security guards a tongue-lashing.

This must be Sandro.

"What's he saying?" I whisper as the man verbally abuses the team of guards; scolding them and poking them right in the chest. The guy's got one hell of a temper, that's for sure.

"He is telling the guards not to kill us…" Mikael utters, which confuses me greatly. Didn't he say that the man was a ruthless villain? What kind of evil guy tells the guards _not _to kill people?

"Water… water…" Marcus says a little louder, attracting the attention of Sandro as everyone seem to stop what they're doing all at once. Mikael, in one vain last attempt to get him to shut up, smacks him on the arm, but it doesn't work. "Water! _AGUA! _Please!"

Sandro glares at me sharply before casually strolling over to Marcus, who's practically dying at his feet and grovelling.

Before he addresses the man though, Sandro turns around and glares; rage clearly painted on his face.

"ARE YOU ALL PREPARED TO MEET YOUR END?! NO?! WHO TOLD YOU TO STOP WORKING?!"

The man clearly holds some form of command over the workers, as most look down steadily and continue to work. I know, and so does he, however, that they're all still watching to see what happens next.

"_Agua… Agua…" _Marcus pleads as Sandro bends down on a knee in front of him; tipping Marcus' chin upwards and maintaining a neutral expression.

"You want water?" he questions, to which the man furiously nods. Sandro whistles for two of the security guards as they come sprinting over to him. "_Agua! _Our friend here needs nourishment! You know what to do…"

Nodding quickly, the guards hustle back into the office buildings while Sandro orders the man to follow him over to a telephone pole – obviously no longer working properly. Marcus sits upright against the pole as Dominic closes his eyes and encourages me to do the same. I stubbornly refuse, so he just grunts and reluctantly watches the exchange with me.

Maybe I should've listened to him…

Sandro places a cloth over Marcus' face and orders two of the guards to hold him down as he squirms underneath it. The security personnel who left have now come back with a big bucket of… steaming water – it's boiling hot, and… Oh dear god…

"You want water?" Sandro asks loudly, attracting the attention of everyone in the prison. "Let's give it to him."

He takes the bucket and grasps it with the handles, walks back over to Marcus and dumps the bucket onto Marcus' covered face; his screams sending shivers down my spine as I sit there shocked at the cruelty. Sandro tilts the bucket again on top of the man as he struggles to breathe through the cloth.

This is water torture at its absolute worst.

Tossing the bucket aside, Sandro rips the cloth off of his burned flesh as the rest of us look on, completely disgusted at the transformation. He doesn't even look like the same guy anymore, as the boiling water practically melted his face away.

"Would you like some more?"

Marcus still screams and whimpers in sheer agony, but he manages to shake his head as he tries his hardest to crawl away. Sandro puts a stop to that by kicking him right in the face before dragging him by the collar back to our row of tobacco pickers.

"I will not kill you here today – you are a lucky man!" Sandro proclaims menacingly. "I need my workers _alive_, but I swear to motherfucking Christ, if you step out of line or complain to me again, I will not hesitate to shoot you until you look like fucking Swiss cheese! _Comprende?!"_

I drop the plyers that I was holding as Sandro glances over my way, before turning to address the rest of the camp.

"Let this be a lesson, and let this man be an example for you all!" he bellows, commanding unwavering loyalty and fear to all. "I do not tolerate insolence! I do not accept any less than your fucking BEST! Fail to do so, and the consequences will be _severe!" _

He then walks down the aisle towards me, but I glower at him as he faces me. For a split second I imagine that it's Carver standing there instead, but the image is torn from my mind as I match his stare. Maybe they were distant relatives or something.

"Know this," he starts lowly, before smacking me roughly across the cheek as I crash into the plant behind me. Lilly looks enraged, but Dominic knows better than to try anything.

"TO THOSE WHO SERVE, YOUR LIVES MEAN _NOTHING!_" he roars as I see him walk off, leaving me with a bruised cheek and a fire burning in my heart. He won't get away with this shit.

Rubbing a hand through his slicked-back, greying hair, Sandro walks away with a slew of guards trailing him. The rest go back to patrolling in quiet nervousness. Even his own people are afraid of him.

"Get the American woman out here," I hear him bark as my ears perk up. It couldn't be…

"But sir, she's not yet fit to move…" one of the guards advise, but immediately shut up when Sandro gives him a look.

"If Jonathon hadn't fucked up, then she wouldn't be in that situation!" he yells angrily, steam practically pouring out of his ears. "And if she hadn't resisted, then I wouldn't have had to discipline her! We're on a tight schedule, and we're behind on our quota. I need workers, Corvo! Bring the American out here, and don't argue back to me again!"

"Yes, _padre," _Corvo (who I'm assuming is his second in command) responds, before bellowing to an officer to release their prisoner out into the fields.

"Clem, you alright?" Lilly asks as she and Dominic help me stand back up. I rub my cheek sorely, but I nod in appreciation as I wipe some tobacco leaves off of my back. It's a good thing that I've got some people willing to watch my back. I'm sure Mikael would as well, but he's too busy trying to tend to Marcus over there. Poor guy…

What Lilly and I see next makes us both sigh in relief…

…but also tremble in fear, anger and shock.

It's sure as hell Jane, alright, as she's forcibly shoved over to where we're all standing. She collapses onto the dirt beside us as Lilly and I try to help her stand. When that doesn't work, we simply have her sit upwards as she groggily looks between the two of us.

She just gives a slow nod towards Lilly, but she actually says something to me; face all bruised and cut up as I see a bandage wrapped around her leg where she was shot before.

"Nice to… see you in one piece… Clementine…" she makes out, her head rolling lazily as she tries to keep herself from toppling over. When I see that she's hiding her left hand behind her back, I carefully move her arm forward despite her insisting that I don't.

I try to overcome a feeling of nausea as I look upon Jane's bloody hand… with two less fingers attached than there are supposed to be.

"Oh my god… Jane…" I whisper as Lilly covers her mouth in shock. Dominic lifts Jane up into his arms and sets her down in between Lilly and I, with her not really arguing as she's gently released. "I'm so sorry…"

"Whatever plan you're creating…" Mikael mutters lowly as he looks over at us, "it better be a good one."

Looking towards Lilly, she simply nods her head before running her fingers through her hair.

We've got some work to do.


	17. When the man comes around

Marcus died during the night – apparently the boiling water had burned straight through his lungs when he was tortured. It happened pretty abruptly, but frankly we should've expected it.

The people sharing a cell with him should've been expecting it too.

They were all asleep when it happened… two young men slept soundly as Marcus turned and ripped their throats out while they snoozed. It was so sudden that they didn't have any time to react, and by the time the guards put Marcus down it was far too late. The deed had been done, and now three more of us are dead. I say _us _because that's just what we are now – we're all a part of the same screwed-up, trampled on family that's sick to death of this happening.

It just goes to show, I guess – no matter where you go, no matter how safe you think you are… in reality you're in just as much danger as those outside the prison fences. And these days, it's the _living _you need to be more afraid of than the dead. Walkers are predictable, humans aren't as much. Walkers are slow and stupid; humans can run and plan ahead.

Walkers want to eat you alive.

Humans would rather have you suffer first.

Mikael wants in on whatever we're trying to do – it seems that all it took was his best friend to get killed for him to come around. He's had enough, and he figures that death while trying to escape from this madman would be better than a death while hunched over some crops.

Dominic… I'm not really sure. He's in on our planning meetings, which occur when the guards aren't looking as we work out in the fields. Lilly and I draw scenarios in the dirt while he, Mikael and Jane watch us; occasionally pointing out a flaw or risk that we've neglected. We can't have any mistakes, or else we're all dead.

Jane's hand is now covered by a thick bandage, and I occasionally see her holding back tears whenever she looks down on it. Sandro tortured her… after they sent us to Mexico, Jane tried to fight back against one of the guards even though she was shot, so they took her into the main office building. Sandro was told about what had happened, so he beat her up before bringing her over to the kitchen table. He grabbed a steak knife and… you put the pieces together.

"We're gonna kill them all," I remember Lilly saying to me one evening just before we all went to bed. "Every last fucking one of these monsters. Sandro, Corvo and Papa John are all gonna die."

This has been planned out for two weeks now, and finally the pieces are coming into place. At first it was just a small group of us planning to escape, but as news of our efforts have spread throughout the camp, more people have begun talking. There are whispers about a rebellion – the biggest one this place has ever seen – and it's getting people anxious as hell, but also incredibly excited. Most of these people have been prisoners here for quite a long time, and to hear talks of freedom and escape from Sandro's reign is something that they've only dreamed of.

However, just as it's reached the ears of the other prisoners, it's also being picked up on by the guards.

They've been ordered to have their guns trained on us diligently all day, just in case one of us try to make a run for it. However, they don't really have a clear idea of who's planning this thing, so for now we're off the hook.

It doesn't take long for me to get called into the office though, after they see me drawing something in the dirt instead of working. They bark out something in Spanish that I can't understand, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere along the lines of "stop what you're doing". I nod nervously to Jane and Lilly, trying to let them know that I'll be alright, but deep down I'm not so sure. If Jane's hand and face are any indication, then I should be afraid – _very _afraid.

As I'm escorted into the office, almost the entire working prisoners drop their tools, stand up and place one hand across their chest – I can't help but be wowed and smile as they do this. Now more than ever, we're all the same, and the security guards don't know what to do. It's not as if they can shoot everyone – that'd take away their business, not to mention create a whole bunch of walkers for them to deal with.

The guards can yell all they want, but we're a force to be reckoned with now. The ball's rolling, and moss can't grow on a rolling stone.

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I think it has to do with us moving forward or something like that. I don't know, I'm only eleven after all! Or am I twelve now? Grr… you're making me frazzled, I don't even know!

I'm tossed into a dark room with several paintings adorning the walls; most of them seem to be from a long time ago, since I don't know any guys that wear white, fluffy wigs anymore. The carpet is a soft red and adorned with little, yellow stars that run along it. Walking down the hallway, I hear the giant doors shut behind me, and I have no choice but to go forward. The ceiling's pretty high, with a busted chandelier in the main hallway with some wallpaper peeling off the walls. Compared to the rest of the world, this place is like a palace.

I hear the sound of some things crashing together, and I turn the corner to see that asshole Sandro playing a game of pool with Corvo just across from him. There's another prisoner with his hand bound behind his back just watching them play in fear, as if they're about to do something completely horrible to him. When Sandro sees me approach, he simply points beside the other prisoner as I reluctantly stand beside him. He and Corvo then resume playing.

I'm scared of this man, but I don't show it on my face. The guy beside me, however, is practically shitting his pants just being in the same room as Sandro and Corvo.

"I hear that there have been talks of rebellion," Sandro remarks suddenly, sinking one of the balls into the hole as he lines up for another shot. "And the two of you are my prime suspects – drawing shit in the dirt instead of doing what you're told. Don't try bullshitting me, I'm not an idiot, and neither is Corvo."

"Please, I'll do anything you ask of me! I swear!" the scared prisoner begs, his eyes wide and teeth chattering as Corvo spits over at him. "Just… just give me a chance! I don't want anything to do with those traitors! Take the girl if you wish, but please just let me serve you again!"

I can't believe the nerve of this prick – throwing me completely under the bus in a desperate attempt to save his own hide! I glare at him from the side, but I say nothing as I hold my composure. No sense in giving them the satisfaction of a confession.

Besides, if it's any indication, Sandro doesn't seem to appreciate this guy's behaviour. He rolls his eyes before standing up and looking over at his partner in crime.

"I think that's enough for a day," he sighs, shaking Corvo's hand with a smirk. "Good game, my friend. We'll make a professional out of you yet!"

"With you at the helm, it'll only be a matter of time!" Corvo praises, causing me to roll my eyes which thankfully none of them notice. Talk about sucking up to the boss…

"Flattery will only get you so far, Corvo," Sandro chastises, voicing my thoughts as he pats his chief officer on the arm. "But enough of this. We've got a problem to sort out now, do we not?"

Turning to the two of us, Sandro bends down and tries to address both of his prisoners at the same time. He seems to not really give a crap about the scared little man over here, but he studies my face for longer than I thought he would've. His face is cold and calculating, and I can practically feel his judgemental attitude as he scans my face. Does he respect me, or am I going to be his next victim?

"You say that this little fucking girl is responsible for this plan of yours?" Sandro asks, which causes the man to whiten considerably. When he says it like that, the whole notion sounds a little bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

It's not as if he's wrong, though…

"W-well, maybe… She's definitely involved though!" the man accuses as I fold my arms across my chest. "I've seen her plotting with the other prisoners!"

"Which ones, exactly?"

"I'm… not entirely sure," he admits sheepishly, glaring at me with a venomous look as if it'll convince these two monsters of my guilt. "But I've seen her do it! She plans to destroy this place, I know she is! You… you have to let me go! She's the guilty one, not me!"

Corvo steps forward, but Sandro simply motions for him not to do anything. With a watchful eye, Corvo scrutinizes me with a harsh glare. Sandro turns towards me with indifference.

"What is your name, American?"

"Clementine."

"Clementino," he nicknames me, chuckling as he shakes his head and stands back up. "Well, Clementino, do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"It won't matter what I say… This guy will just tell me I'm wrong," I point out, causing the prisoner to growl at me. He's asking for it, seriously! "You're just a bully with a gun and a lot of nerve. If you're going to kill me, do it quickly."

Honestly, I have absolutely no idea where my guts have come from, but it seems to have an effect on Sandro – he looks pretty impressed. Corvo looks shocked that I'd stand up to the big boss like that, and the prisoner just wants to go home.

Cracking his knuckles, I brace myself for the impact from Sandro's fists, but no punches come my way. As I open my eyes hesitantly, I see that he isn't even facing either of us anymore. Rather, he's using one of those square shaper thingies on the end of his pool cue without a care in the world.

"Go on back out. Walk – there will be no running in this house," Sandro mutters, but stopping me as I turn to leave without even looking at me. "No, no. Not you, Clementino."

The prisoner won't look me in the eyes as he slowly stands up and begins to leave; his hands still tied behind his back. Sandro gives me a sideways glance before snapping the pool cue in half – revealing two very sharp, splintered ends.

"This is how you command undying loyalty and respect, Clementino," he murmurs lowly enough for just Corvo and me to hear. The prisoner has no inkling about what's about to happen.

But I do…

I've seen death many times over… so many times in fact that it hardly even fazes me anymore. It happens to everyone eventually, and getting super upset I've found is just emotionally taxing and just not worth it. AJ was an exception, seeing's how he was just a baby and all, but I barely bat an eyelid when Sarah died. I just told her to close her eyes and accept what was happening to her…

For a man that tried to blame me like this, I have very little sympathy left for. But even he doesn't deserve this.

Silently strolling behind the man, Sandro stabs the prisoner right through the back as he collapses onto his knees; gasping for air that he's losing as the blood pours onto the carpet. Sandro yanks the stick out of his back, kicks him over and stabs him again in the throat. He then takes the second part of the pool cue and slams it down into his eye, which finally manages to kill him.

When I realize that my mouth was hanging ajar, I quickly shut it and try to block out those disgusting images from my mind as Corvo stands beside me; barely even flinching as he watches Sandro drive the cue right into his brain to prevent a walker transformation.

It takes a sick and evil kind of person to be this cruel, but these men pull it off flawlessly. Lilly's words repeat in my head – Sandro, Corvo and Papa John have to die. But what could I possibly do in this situation? If I try anything, the best I can hope for is the same fate as the fellow dead on the carpet. These men are murderers without remorse, and killing a child would probably be the same to them as swatting a fly out of mid-air.

"Do you want to know why we didn't kill you?" Sandro asks aloud, wiping the blood on the dead man's clothes as he turns back around.

Not giving him the satisfaction of a response, I grimace at him as he casually walks over towards me; his body towering over me but not intimidating as I hold my ground.

"We need workers like you around here," he reasons matter of factly. "That man you see on the floor? He was weak – wanted to take the easy route and blame you for all of his problems. That kind of attitude would've killed him anyways. So really, I just sped up the process a little bit."

"That's not your decision to make," I retort angrily. "You treat us like slaves, force us to work for nothing, and if you don't like how a thing's done you just torture them! You're a monster!"

"How dare you address Sandro that way!" Corvo lashes out at me, but he is surprisingly stopped by Sandro as he waves him off.

"You… you're friends with that tough-looking woman, weren't you? Oh… what was her name…?"

"Jane!" I yell with indignity. "She was my friend, and you cut off her fingers because you're fucking crazy!"

I only drop the f-bomb if I'm _really _pissed off, but this guy totally deserves it. He deserves every swear in the book directed at him, but I don't know enough of them to use against him. Besides, sometimes it's better to get your message across with as few words as possible.

He looks me over with a smirk for a few seconds before beckoning for me to join him down the hall, with Corvo standing behind me at all times with his rifle.

"Try to run, and you're dead…" the officer warns, getting no argument from me as we move into some kind of living room.

Or at least, it _used _to be a living room. Now it's got loads of maps, important documents and emergency escape routes all sitting on a big office desk. There's a fireplace burning on the far wall with several nice living room chairs surrounding it. Sandro tells me to come over to the desk as he sorts through some of his paperwork.

"It is not easy running a place like this. Here, let me show you something," he remarks, sounding more like Carver by the minute. Can you tell that I hate this guy yet? "This is how we survive – we trade the crops we grow here for weapons. This you probably know, but I doubt very much that you know how we have little to no attacks around here."

Slightly curious, I look down to the map that he's pointing at. Apparently we're outside some city or town called Monterrey, but what's all this he's got drawn on here?

"What's with the lines?" I ask with hostility, pointing to the various red and blue lines he's got running back and forth between here and some other places in Texas, including (unfortunately for the three of us) Houston.

"Red lines are the trips from Texas to here. They bring us workers and weapons across the border," he explains, pointing to the one that I had travelled from earlier. "The blue one is the trip back to Texas, where we send trucks full of food to the hungry souls who don't know how to sustain themselves. It is quite a prosperous trade-off, actually, since this is now one of the most heavily fortified places around."

Noticing that there is a slip of paper sticking out from underneath the map, I yank it out despite Corvo's protests for me to leave the stuff alone. Sandro allows it, so the watchdog backs down reluctantly.

"That is a list of every man and woman who work at this camp – "

"Slave pen," I correct, shooting him a glare as I see my name near the top of the list. It goes alphabetically by first name, so naturally I'd be near the beginning. "It's a slave pen you're running. You can call it whatever you want, but I know exactly what this is."

"Fair enough. But it's necessary for our community to grow," Sandro tries to justify himself, but failing miserably in my eyes. "This is important to understand, Clementino: give just a few people the power, and you can achieve great things. Order, safety and compliance… you need these in order to keep a place like this running smoothly. But give a lot of people the power, and nothing will get done. Too many ideas clash, fights and arguments break out, and the entire system falls apart. We need a ruler in times like these."

"That doesn't mean that you don't give them a choice! You don't control people's lives!" I tell him bitterly, tossing the papers back onto the desk.

"Without control, people are lost. Do you really think that those people out there… well, besides you and the two you were with… would actually last a _day _beyond those fences? We provide them with safety from the outside world!"

"People die in here the exact same amount that they would out there. It doesn't make a difference if you treat them this way!" I tell him defiantly, not holding anything back as Sandro chuckles and shakes his head.

"She cannot be reasoned with," Corvo remarks, causing my blood to boil. Who does he think he is, anyway?!

"I'm afraid that I have to disagree with you, my friend," Sandro suggests smugly, "Everyone has their price."

What's his deal here? Why is he acting as if he's about to give me a business proposition, and why is he doing this to a twelve-year old girl of all people? This doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Adjusting my hat so that it fits more snugly on my head, I pause before taking a deep breath and watching as he prepares to talk again. Before he can do any such thing though, I interrupt him.

"What do you want from me?" I ask suspiciously, wanting to get all the answers before saying something that'll come back to bite me in the ass later.

"I know that you're in on these talks of rebellion," he accuses, his face turning serious as he glowers at me. "I told you, Clementino, I'm not stupid. I knew the second you walked into the office that you were different from the other people here. You may not have the size, but you have the initiative; the mentality of a survivor. It wasn't an accident that this started happening soon after you and your friends arrived here. A revolution would decimate our crops and kill us all, regardless of how adaptable you think you are."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"I'm here to make you an offer," he continues, confirming my suspicions as he sits in the office chair; beckoning for me to do the same. When I stubbornly stay where I am, Corvo roughly forces me to sit in the chair with a snarl. Asshole…

"What kind of an offer?" I question, knowing full well that this man isn't in favour of the slaves. "And how do I know that I can trust you?"

That's the question that I ask almost everybody these days.

"I guess you'll just have to take my word for it," Sandro shrugs, cracking his knuckles and folding his hands together on the desk. "Now… shall we begin?"

"Let us go, and we won't kill all of you and burn this place to the ground," I tell him firstly, surprised that he doesn't cut off _my _fingers for that remark. I'm sure that Corvo wouldn't have a problem with that right now.

Instead, Sandro just rubs his hands through his hair and chuckles.

"That's not happening. If I just let all of my workers go, then I might as well slit my own throat."

"What makes you think someone else won't do that anyway?"

Feeling a hard smack against the back of my head, I cringe as the barrel of the officer's rifle breathes down my neck. Sandro doesn't look amused with me, so I raise my hands in surrender and hope that he's feeling merciful this time around.

"I have come to bargain in good faith, Clementino. All that I ask is for you to do the same," he states calmly, motioning for Corvo to remove the gun away from me. "Enough, my friend. There is no need to rush to needless violence already."

Ha! Look who's talking!

"She is but a child!" Corvo argues, glaring at me intensely as he lowers his aim to the floor. "Too immature, and you cannot reason with a little girl! All you can expect is a shitty attitude!"

"There are no children in this world anymore, Corvo. Not anymore – there's no room for that," he explains wisely, showing me that this man knows what he's doing even if it's just sick and wrong on so many levels. "Now, my young worker, perhaps you should try to be more reasonable?"

Staring at the desk, I consider my options. I can flat out refuse to cooperate with the guy, and try to carry out the plan that we have created so far… but now they'll probably be expecting it. The chances of everyone getting out alive are pretty slim so far.

Or, I could try to bargain my way out of a sticky situation, and maybe make the lives a little bit easier around here for people. It might not set us free, but I would be making a difference at least.

"Maybe you should write this down…" I suggest, to which Sandro simply smirks and grabs a pen out of the cup holder.

…..

"After the bargaining has concluded, it is customary for the people involved to shake hands," Sandro mentions, holding out his hand and awaiting me to do the same. I don't want to shake this monster's hand, but seeing as that I have no choice, I reluctantly stick my hand in his iron-like grip. His hand is cold just like his heart.

Corvo starts escorting me out of the office, which is a relief since I have absolutely no desire to stay in this place any longer. The whole room just seems… bad, and it gives me the chills just by standing here. I hope that I made the right calls with this…

"Clementino?"

Slowly turning around, I see that Sandro is glaring at me fiercely while placing his pistol on the maple-wooden desk.

"If you go back on our agreement, or any person tries to sabotage my operation around here," he snarls, meaning every word as his voice chills me to the bone, "I will chop off both of your friends' heads and make you watch as they bleed out like stuffed pigs. I'm a man of my word."

Gulping, I nod before turning around and walking with Corvo back to the main hall; sighing heavily as we pass the bloody corpse of the man that tried to frame me. That could be one of us if things don't work out the way they're supposed to.

I don't think Sandro was bullshitting about those threats, either.

…..

"Umm… Clem?" Lilly asks as she notices me slouched down against one of the walls. "Do you know anything about this? Why we're all in here instead of the prisons?"

"I convinced Sandro to let us sleep in the community centre instead," I shrug, sounding more quiet and pensive than I usually do. Lilly doesn't seem to notice, but she nods towards Jane as she approaches the two of us. Everyone else seems pretty happy that they aren't having to sleep in those conditions anymore, but they seem more thrilled about the revolution – even though they still think it's going to happen.

"Well, that's pretty good… not that it'll matter after tonight," Jane remarks, her hand still aching somewhat from Sandro's treatment of her. "Finally… we're actually getting out of this hellhole once and for all! This is gonna work, guys, I'm sure of it!"

"Hmph, once we get out of here, _I'm _deciding where we go next. Got that?" Lilly cracks, nudging Jane on the shoulder as she rolls her eyes in response. "I'd rather not get shipped off to a slave camp again."

"There won't be a rebellion…"

Immediately, Jane and Lilly both look at me with confusion. We'd been planning this for a few weeks now! Why would I back out of it at the last minute?

"Clem, everything's set and ready to go! If you're worried about things not going to plan, then – "

"That's not it," I interrupt Lilly, looking up at her with fear. "Sandro… brought me in to negotiate with him. That's why we're in here and not in the jail cells. It's why he's agreed to give us some better rations and not torture people for no reason. I agreed not to throw a rebellion. I'm sorry…"

"Clem, no offense, but why the fuck would you do that?!" Lilly demands, placing her hands on her hips with anger as even Jane looks a little disappointed. "It doesn't matter what he tells you! The guy's a psychopath, Clementine! He likes to kill people for _fun_, and you saw what he did to Jane! What part of don't negotiate with evil bastards is so confusing to you?!"

"HE WOULD'VE KILLED US ALL!" I yell, catching the attention of everyone around us. They seem to know what's going on now, and seem pretty pissed off about it. I rub my arm sheepishly under their scrutinizing stares. "I didn't have any choice… Corvo almost killed me just for talking back to him! Do you get that? If I didn't agree to something, then he probably would've shot me as an example to the rest of you!"

"We outnumber them," Jane advises, getting some supportive nods from the rest of the slaves. "If we're careful, then we can take them all out and finally be free from this shit. We don't have to put up with him and his guards anymore."

"They have guns, and we've got fists. What exactly are we supposed to do?" I question, causing her to bite her lip in thought. "Sandro's got a whole whack of people outside on patrol. The second we step outside, they'll start shooting."

"Why are you so afraid of doing anything, Clem?" Lilly asks more calmly; curious as I wipe my eyes from exhaustion. "It's not like you to just give in and surrender."

"I don't want anyone else to die because of me…" I admit sadly, staring at the ground. "I've caused more than enough deaths already."

Tilting my chin up with her right hand, Jane bends down to my height and smirks at me.

"We've all made it this far, and we're all here in one room now, because of you," she acknowledges, getting supportive nods from the rest of the room. "People die no matter what, Clem. It's just a part of life. I'm gonna die, Lilly's gonna die, and eventually everyone here will die. That's just the way it is. But between you and me, I think that I'd rather fight and die for something that I believe in, then sit around and regretting that I ran the other way. Don't you think so?"

Looking around at all of these faces, I realize that maybe I was wrong. Compromise in these circumstances isn't going to get us anywhere. When a ruthless villain like Sandro, Corvo or Papa John tries to take control of your life, that's when you step in and tell them to go to hell. When your chances of making it to see the next sunrise are slim anyways, why not take a chance? Why live in regret for the rest of your life, while you can try to actually make a difference?

Yes… this needs to happen. The plan won't change, even in the direst of circumstances. We need to count on each other in order to give it our all.

"Yeah," I say with more confidence, "let's do it."


	18. I'm a Clem of constant sorrow

_AN: This first part may seem a bit anti-climactic, but it's not just to stall this from ending, I promise lol. It's… well, just see for yourself. Please don't forget to review! They're always appreciated :) _

I never understood what a concentration camp was. My dad tried to explain how it was some horrible, unbelievably evil place where millions of people had died. But it never made sense to me, and I always asked this question whenever I thought of it: why were people getting killed? What did they do to deserve it?

At this point, Mom would usually tear me away from the conversation, scolding Dad for scaring me with stuff about World War Two.

This happened three times, and I never got a straight answer out of him.

But then I think back to what a certain history professor once told me, and I figure that that's as good of an answer that I'll ever get here.

"Clem," Lee told me, eyes downcast as we kept moving in the RV… as Lilly sat with her hands bound a few feet away from us, "people… don't always make sense."

Maybe that sentence applies to the situation we're in right now. We're getting pushed around and exploited by an angry, dangerous man who pretty much shows no remorse for anything he does, but nobody can figure out why. Maybe it's just that he enjoys other people's suffering, or maybe… maybe he's scared. Scared that if he doesn't continue to go on the destructive path that he's set himself on, that everyone will up and turn against him – including those close to him. Maybe Sandro is just so far gone that there's no hope in hell of him making things right, so he continues to torment his prisoners.

These thoughts cloud my mind as I watch people start to prepare in this community centre; either mentally or physically as they pull out various everyday items to use in order to take this place over. When's the last time you've heard of a revolution involving sticks and rope?

"Hey," Jane greets me, sitting down beside me as I smile softly towards her. "You doing alright over here?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I respond, glancing down towards her severed fingers. "I can't believe I tried to bargain with a guy like that… I'm so sorry, Jane."

"You did what you had to – like you always do," she brushes it off, leaning her head back and sighing as Lilly tries her best to communicate with Dominic. She has limited success, of course. "I told you Clem, you're a survivor. That was a smart thing that you did, and we're lucky that it's you he asked and not anyone else. You're gonna be faced with shitty situations where you have to make a choice that some people will hate you for, but we _need _people like that. You're gonna outlast us all…"

"Don't talk like that, Jane…"

"It's the truth," she acknowledges quietly, shrugging her shoulders. "With the way that the rest of u are going, trying to fight each other all the time, one of these days we're gonna screw up. Fire off a shot when we're not supposed to, or pick on the wrong person and get a knife to the face. But I don't think that's gonna happen to you."

"Gee, that makes me feel _so _much better."

"That's what I'm here for."

Rolling my eyes, I playfully smirk at the woman as we watch Lilly practically pulling her hair out.

"Should we maybe go help her?" I ask as Lilly places her hands on her hips impatiently. Wow, she's even intimidating _Dominic_, and he's gotta be the biggest man I've ever seen!

"Nah," Jane chuckles as she watches the exchange, "it's a hell of a lot more fun just to watch them. At least she's not bitching at us for once."

"You're still angry at her?" I question with a tinge of sadness, as I recall all that's happened with the three of us over the past month or so. "After everything that's happened? Everything we've been through?"

Pausing for a moment, Jane disappears into her own little world – as if she's looking back on everything and deciding on whether or not Lilly's become a lost cause. I still haven't given up on her, on either of them actually, but Jane… I can't tell what she's thinking.

"That's up for debate," she finally admits, not going into any more detail as she rubs her hand over her face. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Jane's been through just as much hell as the rest of us. Losing her entire family and having to leave her own sister behind, travelling all the way down from Washington by herself, losing all of her close friends that she met along the way, to _this… _All that trouble, and all Jane got was two chopped fingers.

"I still can't get over Luke…" she mentions to me suddenly, causing me to look over at her saddened expression. "It's stupid, right? I mean, we only knew each other for a little while, but…"

"You loved him," I conclude as she shrugs her shoulders. Huh, I would've expected her to flat-out deny that she had any real feelings for the guy.

"Can't tell, really. There was some chemistry for sure, but… I don't know. The way I just left him out on that ice… it felt like I let him down in the worst kind of way."

"It was gonna happen either way, Jane," I say with a sigh, not liking to relive those awful couple of days. Everything went to hell so quickly. "Luke was gone no matter what we tried to do. But… you saved me, remember?"

"…yeah, I guess," she agrees solemnly, still looking torn about not trying to come over to the guy. Clearly the wounds haven't fully healed up yet. "Anyway, enough of my sob stories. I guess we've gotta get ready for this, don't we?"

Smirking, I stand up with Jane as we start to wander over towards Lilly, Dominic and Mikael, who are all set and ready to go. The room is dark and quiet, as there are only light, pumped-up whispers going on between friends. This is the moment we've been waiting for! The time to strike is now!

And that's about the time that my hope is immediately shattered, burned alive and chopped up into tiny, little pieces before getting swallowed by a goat.

The doors are thrust open as we all look to see Sandro standing there with two of his cronies; wearing a smirk that flattens our spirits.

"Evening, ladies and gentlemen," he starts off, placing his hands in his jacket pocket as one of the prisoners step forward. He's not really a smart fellow by any means, and he's so pumped up full of rage and energy that he simply charges forward with a shiv that he must've snagged somehow. He lifts it above his head, swipes downwards and is met with a swift knee to the stomach courtesy of Sandro.

He's tripped off his own two feet and has his wrist stomped on painfully as the guy tries to reach for the fallen shiv.

"Allow me, _amigo_," Sandro hisses, twirling the weapon around in his fingers before stabbing the guy repeatedly in the chest; getting blood all over his face and causing us to watch in discomfort. We'd try to gang up on him now, but the guards have their assault rifles trained right on us, as if they're daring us to try and take him down.

Once he's finished, Sandro wiped the blood out of his eyes before turning towards me and smiling.

"It hasn't even been twenty-four hours, and you have already broken the contract, Clementino."

"Don't blame one guy for the rest of us," I respond, trying my best to be brave in a room full of watchful eyes. So far, I'm faltering. "We haven't started anything! That was the deal!"

"Hmm… so you say," he ponders, glancing carefully at Mikael holding a rope, who quickly puts it behind his back. "Despite this obvious sham you've created, I was just coming to make sure that our agreement was still intact. I trust the living arrangements are more to your liking?"

Nobody responds, so Sandro simply shrugs as he wanders around the community centre; not daring to go into the middle of the crowd for obvious reasons.

"Yes… this should make you all feel much more comfortable, indeed. That is, after all, what you wanted, is it not?"

Once he notices Jane standing beside me, he smirks sinisterly and walks over towards her.

"Glad to see that your recovery has gone so smoothly," he taunts, causing me to hold Jane's hand to try and prevent her from clawing the man's eyes out. She probably wishes that she had Etrius' sword right about now… His eyes trace over to me as he nods. "Our arrangement shall continue, my young friend. Here's to another period of shared prosperity! Hopefully we can continue to negotiate fruitfully, Clementino."

Sandro and the guards begin their departure as the rest of us look on. I've never felt more humiliated in my entire life. What do you think that speech makes me look like in front of all of these people now?!

"Get some rest, all of you," Sandro commands, clutching the doors as he starts to leave. "It shall be a long day of work for us all. Wouldn't want to fall behind…"

Once the doors shut with a loud bang, the silence that's leftover in the room is deafening. All at once, the eyes of every prisoner in the camp fall upon me, making me feel smaller than I did when I was eight years old. All I want to do now is find a hole that I can dig myself into.

A handful of them come forward yelling; blaming me for all of their problems.

"_Clementino?! What the fuck?! Sandro has a fucking pet name for this little shit!"_

"_She is a double agent, is what she is! She claims to help with this revolution, but on the side has tea with a dictator!"_

"_She has probably told him EVERYTHING! Why else would Sandro come in here?!"_

"Please…" I beg, my whimpers not getting heard over the roar of the crowd. Lilly and Jane stand in front of me, trying their best to protect me from the onslaught of angry rebels. "I didn't… I just wanted to help…"

"_All she has done is made things worse! We will be stuck in here forever because of this little shit!"_

"She tried to HELP you assholes!" Lilly contradicts, punching a man in the face as he tries to grab hold of me. Dominic and Mikael have also thankfully come to my aid. "Quit blaming other people for your problems! We wouldn't all be here together if it wasn't for Clem! You come near her, and we'll put you into the fucking ground!"

Dominic cracks his knuckles before picking up two fully grown men and tossing them into the crowd. One of them gets knocked unconscious before hitting the floor.

"_Colin was with you in the fucking office! I saw the both of you go in there!" _one of the women bark at me, making me believe that she must've been close to the prisoner. _"He never came outside! Only you! Why?!"_

"Sandro killed him…" I admit, causing the roars to only get louder as I try to hide my eyes with my hat. "He took a pool cue, and he slaughtered the man as he was walking out the door. I thought he was going to kill me too…"

"_MAYBE WE'D HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF IF HE HAD!"_

"_YEAH!"_

So this was Sandro's goal for coming in here – he wanted to make it seem as if he and our were on the level with each other, and supporting each other's best interests while forgetting about the rest of them! He wanted me to seem like a traitor in their eyes, and he figured that I would cave after seeing them this upset.

Well, he sure as hell wasn't wrong…

All I wanted was for things to be better, but all that I've ended up doing is making things so much worse and hostile around here. The entire camp wants me dead except for four other people, and now those guards are probably waiting outside for one of us to start shit up again, effectively ending the revolt and violating the contract. Then we'll just be back where we started before.

How is this better?

"CLEM!" Jane yells over the crowd as she gets my attention. She's trying her best to hold back a mob, and it won't be long before they get super pissed and just storm towards me. "Take Dom and get out of here!"

"What?! No! What about you guys?!" I argue back, not really understanding why…

…until it clicks.

Oh Jane, you sneaky devil. As soon as it dawns on my face, Jane nods as I climb onto Dominic's shoulders. He really doesn't mind, I don't think, as he wades through the masses as if he's going through a row of bushes. I'm sure that he doesn't understand what's going on, but he obliges as I kindly ask him to lift me up to one of the windows.

"_WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" _asks one of the angry mob members, before Lilly orders everyone to shut up. Thank god that her time at the air force base paid off, since she can boss people around like nobody's business.

"Not that any of you deserve it, but they're going to help you out!" Lilly explains more quietly as everyone starts to hush up. Wouldn't want anyone outside to catch wind of what's actually going on. "Once they get out there, we need to create a distraction. Anyone got some ideas?"

"It may be old-fashioned, but… a chant might work," Mikael suggests, getting shrugs from everyone else as I climb through the window. They must not have really thought about locking it first. Dominic follows in right behind me, as I give one last wave to the crowd.

"I'm sorry…" I tell them, though nobody seems to really give a damn about my apology at this point. To be honest, I'd probably be pretty pissed too if I was in their shoes.

"Be careful," Lilly warns as I nod to her and jump downwards.

…..

I land on the roof with a soft thud as Dominic practically flops beside me. The guy certainly isn't very graceful on his feet, is he? I shush him as he quickly nods and creeps his head over the rooftop alongside me. So far, we can see that there's a guard in all three of the watchtowers, with two sitting right outside the community centre doors (just as we had suspected). We can see Sandro's office building over to the right, and the fields are straight ahead of us.

That's where we want to head first.

"You ready, Dom?" I ask, smiling as he shrugs his shoulders in response. I can't get enough of this guy! "Okay… we're going to have to be really quiet, okay? Let's sneak over there as quickly as we can, and then we'll get to work. Do you have the matches?"

When he gives me a weird look, I swipe against my finger to illustrate the process. After a little while, the big guy finally understands as he gives me a thumbs up. I giggle slightly as I shake my head and start the descent down one of the water pipes connected to the roof. This is extremely dangerous, and I have to stop to catch my breath as the pipe shakes, but I slowly continue as Dom looks on worriedly. At least he's not a chatterbox, otherwise we both probably would be in big doo-doo. But the man hardly speaks at all!

As I stop to catch my breath and wait for Dominic to begin climbing down, I can't help but feel torn. Yeah, I want to break out of this hell as much as the next person… but what's going to happen next? Even if this actually works, people are gonna die, and the prisoners who I wanted to call friends now probably hate me just as much as Sandro. Will they just cast me aside once their freedom is restored? Will they leave me out to dry on the fence as the walkers pick at my bones?

Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Jane. Now I get it – make choices that some people might hate you for. If that wasn't predicting this sort of thing, then I don't know what was.

And why the hell do they always send the twelve year old girl out on all of the stealth missions?! Jesus, I should start charging people for this stuff!

The chilly night air surrounds us as Dominic lands beside me, more loudly than I would've liked. Just like crossing the street, we look both ways to make sure that no oncoming traffic is headed our way – meaning guards. Listening carefully enough, you can hear the howls and groans of the walkers on the other side of the fence behind us, and occasionally the muffled conversation of some guards in the distance. But so far, we've been pretty lucky as we silently make our way across the path.

Fortunately for the both of us, there isn't anybody left in the prisons, so we quickly jog inside and search the desks for stuff we could take.

"Anything you can use, just put it in your pockets," I tell him, placing a small police baton in my pocket to clarify for him. There's not a whole lot for me to take, but… wow. This pistol should come in handy, even though it probably doesn't have a whole lot of bullets left inside of it.

Dominic grabs a baseball bat that was sitting underneath the counter, which is definitely his preferred weapon of choice. Guns are quick for me, and I can shoot with the best of them, but Dominic's never used one in his life. Not that he's ever really had to, since he could crush a man's head in with his fists if he was feeling really angry, but a bat will do just fine for the mountain man.

"_Aye carumba… _Can you believe this shit? Forced out into the cold, and for what? It's not as if they're going to try anything now," we hear one of the guards remark from outside, causing us both to hide in the corner. I've got my pistol out, but that's only for an emergency.

Besides, I think Dominic wants a crack at the guards for their shitty treatment of him after all of these years.

"Keep up talk like that, and they'll have you working the fields with the rest of them," his buddy replies sternly. "I'm going to do another lap of the office buildings. You stick around and make sure nobody tries to escape."

"Whatever… it's not as if they'd have anywhere to run."

Holding my breath, I try to remain calm and quiet as we hear the guard sigh right outside the doorway.

Unfortunately, Dominic's a big guy, so when he tries leaning back against the desk, it creaks and slowly alerts the attention of the security man.

"Huh?" he questions, holding his rifle out in front of him as he bursts through the doorway; his flashlight glancing every which way except for us. The man takes some careful steps forward without noticing us, so I motion for Dominic to slowly tread behind him. Thankfully he understands, so he tiptoes forward as I silently move to close the door behind us. Nobody needs to be alerted by us for this sort of thing…

As soon as the guard is satisfied that he's checked out what he's supposed to, he turns around with a curt nod – only to be met by a 300 pound, almost seven feet tall bald man with a baseball bat. Dominic makes short work of the man as he slams the bat across his head; smashing it against his face until his skull cracks open like an egg. I had to shut the door a little more loudly than I would've liked because of the guy's screams, and I thought for sure that somebody would've heard him, but there's something… occupying them.

Oh boy, we've gotta hear this!

The security guard looks like Carver after Kenny smashed his face in, but I try not to look at his head as I pat the guy down for weapons and ammo. Inside his pocket is another pistol and some rounds, so I take those and sling the assault rifle over my back. I certainly am not strong enough to use it properly, but I bet that someone else could.

Dom and I scurry out of the prison and shut the door firmly behind us, hoping that nobody will find the body until much later. Moving closer towards the fields, the both of us look to see that a whole bunch of the guards have gathered near the community centre doors. It's faint, but you can hear something going on behind those walls.

And it's probably one of the funniest things that I've ever heard in my long, twelve year life.

"_I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD!"_

"_SANDRO SUCKS A BAG OF BALLS!"_

"_I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD!"_

"_THE GUARDS AROUND HERE'VE GOT NO SOULS!"_

"_SOUND OFF!"_

"_JACKASS!"_

"_SOUND OFF!"_

"_DICKHEAD!"_

I have to hold my hand over my mouth to keep me from bursting out in laughter as we sprint undetected into the fields; crouching down below the tobacco plants and various other crops that they grow in this place. Only Lilly could've come up with a chant like that, and she and Jane are probably dying of laughter inside there despite the seriousness of what we're about to do.

My heart pounds against my chest as we make our way down the rows, not stopping until we get to the very last vegetable plant. We settle ourselves down, pull out the box of matches and look towards each other.

"Ready, big guy?" I ask, smirking as he nods at me with eagerness.

"Clementine… is… friend," he remarks towards me, making my heart swell with pride. We sure have come a long way, haven't we?

"You're my friend too, Dominic," I reply, backing up as I light the match. I carefully hold it up against the first plant, and grin in victory as it catches fire. Thank god it doesn't rain that much over here!

The deed is done now, though, as the both of us duck after hearing a gunshot come our way. That's the reaction we had expected, but unfortunately for us, the only way for us to get to freedom is to crawl back under the plants and rush back the way we came. Hopefully we won't get burned alive trying to do it, as the flame's already caught onto some of the other tobacco plants at this prison. It may be a big waste of food, but it's the only way that we're going to get the guards to split up and get our friends out of the community centre.

I gasp in worry as Dominic takes a bullet to the chest, but he tries to assure me that he's fine even though I can see the blood running down his shirt.

"God damn it, Dom! You're not fine! Just run for it!" I tell him, but the stubborn man won't hear any of it. He's set in his ways, but he starts to realize that something's not right… when he takes another bullet to the chest.

Dominic collapses to his knees as I shoot and kill the bastard who did this to him.

Even a man as big and strong as the mountain who saved me in prison can fall, and as he tries his best to close up the bullet holes in his chest, I heart-breakingly realize that his time is running out.

"I'm sorry, big guy…" I apologize, croaking out as I rush to his side. Dominic tiredly smiles towards me and grunts, coughing up blood as I force him to lay on his back. "This should never have happened to you…"

"This… my… home…" he splutters, grabbing my hand and giving it a firm grip. "Goodbye… friend… Clementine…"

"…Goodbye…" I repeat, raising a pistol up woefully as he accepts his predicament and smiles. This should never have been his home – Dominic should never have had to live in a place like this all his life.

But bad things happen to everyone, no matter who you are.

Firing the bullet into his brain, I turn my head back towards the prison and glare; my face visible from the light as my eyes burn as intensely as the flames. I see the community centre doors being flung open as a stampede breaks outside, and I hear the gunshots… so many gunshots…

Strengthening my resolve, I make sure that I'm low enough to the ground before crawling my way back to the enemy lines.

We will not be stopped, we will not be silent, and we will not fail.

We've come too far to back off now.


	19. I see a darkness

My face feels as though it's melting off. No seriously, the fire's burning so intensely above me that it literally feels like I'm sitting in a volcano. Thank god that these plants are up high enough, otherwise I'd be a roasted marshmallow at this point.

Mmm… marshmallows…

Unfortunately I don't have any of those – instead, sweat trickles down my skin as I continuously cough violently while crawling my way forward. I will not die in a burning field! Dominic didn't just die for something as simple as this… he died for the cause, and I'll be damned if I don't at least shoot some of these guards before my time is up. I can't let his death be in vain.

"_AHH! OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" _screams a shrieking voice, as I hear their body get incinerated by the fire. He must've fallen into it somehow, but I just hope it wasn't one of the prisoners. I don't really know what happened after I started crawling underneath here. Trust me, if there was another way around then I'd surely take it. But the only other choice would be to climb over one of the fences, and I'd rather not get eaten by walkers today. Or any day, for that matter.

I can't stop, otherwise I'll undoubtedly catch fire and die, so I keep trudging forward as the smoke starts to cloud my vision. Mom always told me to get low if there was ever a fire – stop, drop and roll or something like that. I'll do the drop part, but the other two steps don't really apply in this situation. My throat's dry and it hurts as I cough again, but at last I can finally see the exit.

It's just that I'm finding it increasingly difficult to move – the energy from my body is just vanishing as the heat intensifies. Maybe I should just take a nap right here…

"_CLEMENTINE?!" _I hear a muffled voice calling out to me. Whether it's friend or foe I'm not entirely sure, since both Sandro and Corvo both know my name as well and could just be calling to trick me. But I have to take a chance. I yell out in pain as some embers scorch my face, but I quickly wipe them away as I try to hurry. Another stunt like this and I won't live to see our wish fulfilled.

I clutch pieces of grass to pull myself forwards, and I almost make it to the exit…

…when I feel a slight burning sensation coming from the top of my head.

No! This can't be happening! I scream out in pain as once again I get too close to the flames, but I manage to make it out of there just in time as I roll over to safety. My hat scorches part of my ear as I hiss out, but then I immediately toss the hat off and start to panic. The damn thing's on fire!

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" I repeat over and over, stomping on the thing and trying my best to put out the small flame that's formed on it. Jane rushes over as soon as she sees me, but I'm too concentrated on this to pay her much mind. Once it finally goes out, I swear under my breath and cringe as part of the hat is burned and ruined. Blowing on it a few times, I reluctantly place it back on my head and turn to face Jane with a serious expression.

"Jesus, Clem! What the hell were you thinking?!" she scolds, a disapproving look on her face as she places her hands on my shoulders. "You don't need to prove yourself by burning alive!"

"Dominic's dead…" I tell her simply as she steadily looks downward. "They killed him, Jane. Shot him twice in the chest without warning. Where's Sandro?"

"Clem, I know that look. Personal revenge is gonna get you killed," she warns, her words not changing my mind at all.

"I need to find him. Where is he?"

"He's… he's probably in his office, but that's not important right now!" she tells me, wincing as she notices the burn marks on my face. Right now though, I barely feel any of them. There's just too much blood pumping through my veins. "Look, we need to go and help Lilly and Mikael – they're over by one of the watchtowers, and they're pinned down."

"Let's go then," I respond, not having any time to lose as we quickly jog our way over there. Jane's bleeding from a cut on her neck, but thankfully it's nothing too serious. The cuts on her face have reopened slightly, and to be honest I've never seen her look worse. "What happened to you?"

"One of those assholes got the jump on me; tried to slice my neck open with a knife," she explains, making a cutting motion across the baseline of her neck. "I put him down, but he almost got me good. Lilly's fine as far as I know, but Mikael got shot in the arm."

"What about the rest of the camp?" I ask, not liking where this is going as she shakes her head.

"At least half of us are dead – they fired at us the second we burst through the door. Not all of them… were shot in the head," she mentions, looking down at me as the both of us realize what that means. God damn it… we didn't really take into account that people would come back as walkers.

Such as the man who got burned alive, who's slowly standing up while still roasting. The smell is absolutely disgusting as he stumbles along.

"Don't worry about him! We've gotta move!" Jane bellows over the gunfire as we move closer. But the both of us gasp in shock and hide behind one of the prison walls as we see another horrible sight – some of the prisoners who had fallen first have turned, and they're eating the bodies of other fallen soldiers. One of the guards scream in terror as he desperately tries to crawl away from a walker, but he's been shot multiple times in the leg and isn't fast enough. His pleas for mercy rock our eardrums as his stomach is torn open.

Frowning, Jane shakes her head and rubs her face in horror.

"You never get used to seeing that…" she mutters as I widen my eyes in shock. I quickly tell her to duck as I pull out my pistol and shoot an approaching walker right in the face; causing it to double over and land right beside Jane. "Holy shit… Thanks for the save."

Nodding my head, I then remember that I still have that guard's assault rifle strapped across my back, so I tear it off and give it to Jane as she raises an eyebrow.

"I don't want to know how you got this, do I?"

"Not really," I tell her simply, following her as we work our way towards the watchtower that she was talking about. We cut across the courtyard; stopping every so often when we see a walker roll past, until we get a little ways away from our destination.

There's a guy with a sniper rifle up in the tower, and he's looking through the scope to pick off any potential targets. The blast from his gun is super loud, and it's attracting a shit-ton of walkers towards this place as they try clawing their way through the fence.

"Can't stay out in the open… we'll draw his fire straight to us," Jane remarks, clutching her rifle against her chest as I hold onto my pistol for dear life. I've still got that police baton in my pocket as well in case I need it, but a pistol would be much more effective. "How should we play this?"

As the firing slows down a little bit, I poke my head out for just a moment in order to see what exactly is happening out here. There are quite a few dead bodies on the ground – most of them friendly – but you can see a handful of prisoners laying on their stomachs against the hill, barely protected from the guard's sniper. And they're lead by…

"Lilly!" I exclaim quietly, pointing over to the hill as I see her with a pistol and trying to keep to the ground as best she can. "She's trapped over there! We've got to – "

The guard's bullet crashes into the brick right beside my head, so I quickly hide behind the wall and gasp in relief – I was _this close _to getting shot in the brain. Jane's got her arm planted across my chest in shock, but she quickly recovers and cocks her rifle back.

"Toss out your gun," she advises, "We need to draw his fire on us."

"He'll kill you if you go out there!" I protest, not wanting her to get hurt even more than she already has.

"All I need is one shot from him, that's it. We need the distraction – don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Closing my eyes tightly, I nod as she prepares to sprint out of cover on my signal. This is a crazy, stupid plan, but it's the only one we've got. Sometimes the stupid plan is the best plan.

Counting to three in my head, I toss my pistol out in the open as the gun goes off, giving Jane enough time to sprint out and fire several arrays of bullets at him. I can hear something connect, but everything's quiet as she hides behind one of those electric transformers.

"Did you get him?!" I call out, hearing Jane mumble that she thinks so. There are some more walkers coming towards us, so I take a leap of faith and rush out to retrieve my gun; ducking my head as another bullet goes whizzing by. I don't actually see it, but I can sure as hell hear that somebody's shooting.

"Oh my god…" I breathe out, glaring at Jane as she tries shooting at some of the walkers. "Jesus, Jane! I thought you said he was dead!"

"He is!" I hear Lilly reply, making me sigh in relief as I see her and the remnants of our camp follow closely behind her. There are only about twenty of us left, but the majority of us now have guns. The problem is that a lot of these people haven't had to use one in quite some time, so we have to be prepared for the worst.

"Where's Sandro?" I repeat myself as Mikael, Jane and two other prisoners kill a couple more walkers. "None of this will matter if he escapes!"

Looking down at me, Lilly sighs before nodding and yelling for everyone to pull back; gasping as one of the prisoners gets the chomp on by a walker that snuck up the side.

"Shit! They're everywhere!" Lilly remarks, shooting both the victim and the monster before sprinting closer to the office buildings with the rest of us. "Stay close to each other! We'll keep each other safe, just trust me!"

As we're moving, a few of our fellow escapees pass by me and apologize for the way they acted, saying how it wasn't right of them to treat me that way. I just quietly tell them not to worry about it – I've got a lot of things on my mind right now, but dealing with how people feel about me isn't one of them.

Ending this nightmare and finally getting the justice we've been looking for, however, is.

There's no way that Sandro and Corvo can come out of this alive… If it's not me who pulls the trigger, then fine, whatever. I don't care either way, as long as before they die the two of them realize how much they hurt us. Assholes like those two probably won't really care who they've hurt, since they lost all sense of morality and kindness probably a long time ago, but hopefully their deaths can give these prisoners some closure at least.

Sandro's main office building is straight ahead, and with a little luck he'll still be inside. There aren't a whole lot of guards left alive, as their prison crumbles around them and burns as the flames from the crops bun brighter and bigger. This place is a war-torn, ravaged mess – no place stays safe forever, no matter how fortified it is. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, especially when you're living with walkers outside your door.

"This bastard's mine…" Mikael hisses, shooting one of the guard's in the head while holding his injured arm downwards. It looks really painful, and he lets out a grunt after he fires his weapon. "Shit… are we almost done here? I need medical attention…"

"Just hang in there," Lilly commands as we press onwards; our group looking incredibly terrifying and dangerous as we push towards the door. Jane, Lilly and I lead the charge at the front, while Mikael stands in behind us as the rest of the camp watches our backs. We're like an army all on our own here, and we've just about won the war.

At least, I hope we have. Lilly carefully opens the front doors of the office and orders for two other rebels to come in with us. The rest of the camp waits outside with their weapons raised.

Here we come, Sandro.

…..

The main hall is just as creepy as I remember it being, except this time there are several bullet holes in the roof that must've come from outside. Colin's bloodstain in still visible on the carpet, but I don't say anything about that fact – everyone else just assumes that something got in here earlier, anyways.

It's way too quiet in here… Perfect spot for an ambush, as Lilly motions for us to stay close to either hall. Jane, Mikael and I hang on the left wall, while Lilly and two of the rebels stay on the right. We've all got our guns out for any special surprises that might come our way, but we tiptoe to the front and pray that we don't suffer a barrage of gunfire.

We head in through to the pool table room – empty. Nothing in here except for a blood splatter on the hardwood floor. Deciding that we should check this room out anyways, Jane quickly searches the closets, the desk and even the broken fridge for any signs of activity. Why has nobody come out to meet us yet?

"Looks pretty fresh," Lilly comments darkly, scrunching up her nose as she looks at the pool of blood. "Whoever got hurt did so recently. Think they might've packed up and left?"

"He'd be more of a coward than I thought, then," Jane comments, checking the hallway to make sure it's clear.

"There is no way that _El Diablo _left his prison in such disarray," Mikael disagrees, shaking his head. "I don't believe it – Sandro was dead loyal to ruling this place. He'd guard it even to his last breath."

"Guys…" I remark, noticing that the blood trail leads right under the door and into the main planning room where I had negotiated with Sandro earlier. It appears as though it's pretty dark inside, since there's only a small dimmer of light piercing underneath the doorway, but it's still enough for us to see. Lilly nods as I carefully and quietly open the door, fully expecting someone to be waiting to shoot on the other side.

When no shots are fired, I grow even more confused. Where are the rest of the guards?

I open the door fully as all six of us step inside. This place smells foul, and if the toppled chairs and flipped desk are any indication, there was a struggle occurring in here.

My suspicions are confirmed when I see Sandro propped up in the corner; his eyeball blown out by a gunshot and various pieces of his left arm torn off. He actually manages to chuckle as he sees us approach.

"Heh… Looks like I'm caught in a trap…" he wheezes, blood pouring down his cheek as I gaze upon his grotesque frame. "I should have figured… you'd squirm out of our deal, Clementino…"

"Just kill him and be done with it," Lilly spits, as Jane aims her rifle dangerously close to Sandro's head. She lowers it before firing one round into his leg as he wretches about painfully.

"Jane! Just kill him already!"

"Not yet…" Jane growls lowly, contradicting herself over that whole _personal revenge _thing. Right now, I can't exactly say that I blame her.

"I want some answers," I tell him as he bleeds onto the floor. He doesn't have a whole lot of time left. "Who did this to you? None of our guys came in here until now."

He groans out once before steadying his breathing and smirking at Jane.

"I suppose… I deserved that…" he chuckles humourlessly before turning his attention to me. "Corvo… the fucking prick! I called him… a friend, urgh! Fifteen motherfucking years, and he betrays me… Took off in the truck with my guards… And left me for you. I'd wring his neck myself if I could…"

"Where did he go?" Jane asks, holding the rifle back towards his face. The next shot will probably be deadly. "Tell me right now, or I'll draw this out even longer. You don't need your fingers, do you?"

Nobody's holding her back, so Jane pulls her knife out of its holster and jabs it straight into Sandro's hand; causing him to howl out of pain as she twirls the blade around.

"How does it feel?! Huh?! HOW DOES THAT FUCKING FEEL?!"

Having seen enough of this, Mikael steps forward, pushes me out of the way and fires directly into Sandro's skull. Finally, his reign of terror over these people has come to an end.

I haven't seen Jane this angry in a long while.

"You fucking idiot…" she snarls, pulling the knife out of his hand and stepping forward; slowly going crazy with rage. "How the hell are we supposed to find Corvo and them now, huh?! They could be out there in the fucking desert waiting for us to let our guards down! Did you ever stop to think that maybe I was trying to help us out?!"

"I will not stand by why you take on fucking revenge!" Mikael roars as I try to separate Jane from him. It doesn't matter if she took that a little far; I won't let her get hurt by Mikael… even if it means putting myself in danger. He shoots me a glare before yelling again. "You are still taking her side? Even after what you just witnessed?! That wasn't justice! That was torture!"

"What do you think he's been doing to you for the last five years?" Lilly questions, her hand grazing her pistol at her side as the two other rebels seem a little bit anxious. "Just put your gun down, Mikael. We're on the same side, remember?"

"I don't think so – not anymore," he spits, the bullet in his arm giving us the advantage if things go screwy. "I should've known that you pig-headed Americans would cause nothing but trouble around here! You think that you know everything, but you don't! We've suffered in these walls for much longer than you, so don't you dare think that you've saved our lives! We saved our own! Half of this fucking camp is DEAD THANKS TO YOU!"

"Jane… run," I tell her as two of the rebels aim their weapons towards us. They can shoot about as well as Nick could, which really doesn't say much, but from this distance they could shoot to kill. "Put your guns down! There's no sense in fighting each other! That's just what Sandro would've wanted!"

"You stay out of this, _Clementino!_" Mikael mocks, making me glare at him as he draws his weapon and aims it towards Jane. "You fucking ignorant piece of shit! I stood up for you in the community centre, and _this _is what happens?! You three came in here just to get revenge on a man that you've known for less than a fucking month! No… If there is a god, let him be my witness. I do not sin in a room full of sinners! If anyone will have done wrong today, it will have been you three!"

"I'm warning you one last time, asshole," Jane says, her voice chilling me to the bone. This is the Jane that fought with Kenny a while back, and definitely not the same person I've come to know since. Then again, none of us are the same as before. "Back off, right fucking now! I swear to god I'll – "

She's cut off by the sound of one of the rebels' guns going off, smashing against one of the picture frames as everybody immediately finds a place to take cover from. Lilly takes out the guy who fired first, and just barely escapes danger as she ducks from a shot by Mikael. Jane pulls me to the floor as the other rebel fires his rifle towards us, but thankfully he doesn't know how to use it properly as bullets go spraying all over the place.

"_FUCKING AMERICAN SHITSTAINS!" _Mikael roars, cursing as his weapon runs out of bullets. He pulls out a knife and covers behind the door in the hallway; waiting for an opening. _"TRAIDORES! AYUDANOS! AYUDANOS!"_

"What's he saying?!" I ask, as Jane widens her eyes in shock.

"I'm pretty sure he's calling for help! Shit!" she snarls, shooting the other rebel twice in the chest as he collapses against the wall; his blood staining the wallpaper behind him. "LILLY! WE'VE GOTTA BOLT!"

It's difficult to hear, but someone from outside must've heard Mikael, since they're going to be here any minute now. Lilly manages to clip Mikael right on the shoulder, but nobody can get a clear enough shot to kill him. There's only one way out now… through the back and over the fence.

Crap.

Thinking quickly, Lilly orders us to move as she grabs a fire iron that was still in the fireplace and chucks it across the room; lighting the curtain ablaze. Jane grabs the other fire iron and closes the door behind us as she jams the door handle with the metal rod.

"_YOU WILL BURN FOR THIS!" _we hear Mikael yell; his voice muffled by the door as I shut my eyes tightly. _"THERE IS NOWHERE FOR YOU FUCKERS TO HIDE! YOU SHALL GET YOURS YET! I SWEAR IT! I SWEAR IT ON MY – AGGGGHHHHHH!"_

All three of us stand there with heavy breaths, looking downwards and trying to justify ourselves for what just happened in there. It went from trying to save the whole camp and finally giving them their freedom… to this. Mikael is burning alive inside the office building no doubt, if that last shriek of his was any indication.

"What have we done…" I whimper, unable to believe the atrocity we just committed.

"We… we had to," Lilly keeps telling herself, as Jane kicks the ground in anger and self-loathing. "We had to… There was no other choice…"

"They're dead because of us!" I argue, but Lilly seems to be lost in her own little world. "We're no better than Carver or Sandro or any of them! How can you say that we had to do that?!"

"They would've killed us if we stood by…" Jane tries to reason, but I haven't even begun talking to her yet. She's half the reason this happened in the first place!

But I bite my tongue and slam my tiny fist against the metal door, wiping my eyes as Lilly motions for us to hurry. We can't stay here… not after all of this. Even if those rebels do escape and come out unharmed, they certainly won't be throwing a party for us. They'd probably rather execute us instead.

Jane gives me a boost as I climb over the only part of the fence that doesn't have barbed wire at the top of it, as my two companions follow suit. Taking one last look at the burning prison, my gut wrenches as the flames are visible inside the window. We've destroyed this place; burned it to ashes and left them with the pieces.

As we make our way through the desert and try our best to avoid the walkers, I can't help but ask myself this question.

How the hell are we supposed to come back from this?

_AN: I bet you were expecting them to come out of this like heroes, weren't you lol? Well, Jane and Lilly certainly aren't heroes, and neither is Clem half the time – they're survivors. They can't and won't save everybody, regardless of how noble their intentions might be._

_I know that this seems like a shitty situation, and you were probably wanting for everything to turn out just fine for Clem. But that's not how things work in this world, unfortunately, and this is a test for the three of them – how much can they take, and can they come back from all of the horrible stuff they've been forced to do? That's what this story's about – Jane, Lilly and Clem, and how they adapt together in this shitty situation._

_Anyways, enough of my rant. Hopefully you enjoyed that, even though it was a bit bittersweet. I'll have the next one up when I get the time!_


	20. Red dead redemption

_AN: Happy Halloween, my faithful readers! Don't go egging or TP-ing my house if you don't like this chapter, please :) Although, I think it should be fine. Just a heads-up though, yes I reused one of the themes for after Clem shoots Kenny and she forgives Jane, but I think it works pretty well in this circumstance. Some revelations are revealed!_

_By the way, this unfortunately is going to be the second last chapter of this story. It's been a good run for this, but I think that it's time for it to end. I'd like to thank all the reviewers for sticking by me with this thing, and I'll make sure to list off the reviewers personally at the end of the story. Thanks for the unreal support guys :) _

"Clem, stop for a second."

My head hangs low; my shoulders sagging, but I keep walking forward.

"Clem? Did you hear me?"

Oh I hear you alright – but I'm not really listening. And why should I? What have you done within the last five hours that can warrant me giving you my full attention?

"Clementine, stop!" Jane jogs up to me, placing a firm hand on my shoulder that I instantly try to shake off. "Come on, quit being so ridiculous! Don't just ignore me as if I'm not even here…"

Narrowing my eyes, I say nothing as I stubbornly refuse to speak. What's there left to say though? We're out in the middle of nowhere, with the desert sand sneaking into my shoes and the heat pounding down onto our heads. Walkers are the least of our problems – heat exhaustion, dehydration and starvation are our main worries right now.

Tilting my chin up, Jane brushes a thumb (the only one she's got left) against my cheek as I suck in air. It stings like you won't believe, and that's not even the part of my face that hurts the most. Right above my eyebrow is a terrible burn mark, as well as in the section that Jane's touching for some reason. My face looks like it's been put through the ringer, but Jane doesn't look much better.

"Couldn't get a good look at you until it was light out," Jane explains, sighing as I lightly bat her hand away from me and walk forward. Lilly's constantly got her gun out, worried that a tumbleweed might roll its way over and kill us all where we stand.

Yeah, Lilly's getting pretty paranoid.

"Come on, kid. Let me in – don't keep shoving me out," Jane hollers from behind me, which I ignore yet again. All that I want to do is get somewhere safe, and then _maybe _we can talk. Certainly not here, though. "I can't do this alone, Clementine! Is that what you wanna hear?"

"She's not talking to anyone right now, Jane," Lilly remarks as she shields her eyes from the sun. "Might as well give up."

"…Fine," Jane relents, slightly bitterly as she puts her hands in her pockets and making the both of us seem extremely immature. Well, at least I haven't stomped my feet on the ground and thrown a tantrum yet – I'm pretty sure that Lilly would leave me on the side of the road if I started doing that.

Baking in the morning sun, I can see the heat waves coming off the gravel road up ahead as we see almost no signs of life in any direction. We didn't have to dress up in walker attire this time around, but we did have to off two or three of them before getting here. That was a while back though, and we haven't seen any activity since.

"Where the fuck are we even going?" Lilly asks, raising her hands up in front of her before lazily letting them hang back down at her sides. "We've been at this for hours, and we've seen the same stretch of land now for ages!"

"What do you think we should do?" Jane sighs, rubbing her temple as we all stop for a moment. She's really not in the mood to be having any arguments right now.

"Figure out where exactly it is that we want to head to before going any further. We don't need to worry about the prison anymore, so the least we can do is stop and plan," she explains, holding her gun at her side instead of out front for the first time in hours. "Anybody got a map or something?"

"I snagged something like that, but it's got a bunch of lines and colours and shit all over it," Jane grimaces, pulling out a rather large map that looks vaguely familiar. At first, I just act as if I don't care and keep to myself, but once I get another glimpse of what Jane has, I pull one side of it closer to me to inspect it.

"This… these are those trade routes Sandro was telling me about," I remark, tracing my finger along the blue line going back to Houston. "We should be heading in that direction if we want to – "

"Wait a minute, you're saying we should go _back to Houston Hills?!_" Lilly exclaims, and even I have to agree that it sounds pretty stupid. Actually, it's _extremely _stupid – possibly one of the worst ideas I've come up with in a long time. "We should be heading as far away from that place as possible!"

"Hold on, let's think about this – "

"There's nothing to think about, Jane!" Lilly cuts her off, clearly against going back there. "Sandro's dead, and we're finally out of that hellhole! We should be heading up north – I'm so sick of this place!"

"They've got food, supplies and guns there, Lilly," I count off my fingers, even though deep down I'm actually on board with her for this one. "We're low on everything. Shouldn't we at least try to take some of the stuff from there?"

"So you're saying we should just go over there and steal their stuff?"

"We're gonna kill every last son of a bitch in that place, and then we'll take over the house," Jane reasons, her goals getting more dark by the day. "Look, the prison's trashed, but we _know _that Houston Hills is safe! You saw it, Lilly – no walkers in sight, and it's got enough space that we'll be safe from attacks. Plus, like Clem said, they've got guns!"

"Yeah, that they'll be using on us," Lilly mutters, but cursing as her stomach starts to growl. Looks as though she's gonna cave. "Alright, but how the hell are we going to do this? There's no way that we can just waltz in and take over the place. Any ideas?"

"We'll figure it out as we go along," Jane shrugs, causing me to roll my eyes and Lilly to rub her face in exhaustion. "What? It's not as if the plan worked last time! Half the place was destroyed and almost everyone died!"

"It doesn't matter what happened! The important thing is that we got out – that was the goal," Lilly states, causing me to furrow my brow in confusion.

"What are you saying?" I question, folding my arms together as I look at the both of them. "The plan was to get _everyone _to safety, _right_? Don't tell me that we were just looking out for ourselves?"

"That wasn't the original idea, no," Jane admits slightly shamefully as she rubs the back of her neck. "But… if it came down to getting us out of there, then… well…"

"Tell me," I demand, not liking where this is leading to. Not that it really matters much now, but still. "Tell me that the plan didn't involve shooting Mikael and leaving him and the rest to die in a house. Would you have killed Dominic too, if he was getting in the way of us escaping?!"

"It wouldn't have come to that," Lilly steps in firmly, causing me to settle down a little bit at least. "None of them were supposed to die… It's just that they put our safety at risk, and Mikael wanted to kill us, Clementine. You could see it all along. He was going to wait until we'd finished the problem before shooting us when our backs were turned."

"I don't believe you…" I refuse pathetically, lowering my gaze to the ground. "Mikael trusted me… He'd never do something like that on purpose. We killed him!"

"He used you, Clem. Same goes for most of 'em," Jane says simply, causing me to second-guess myself. Was our friendship all just an illusion? "We didn't murder Mikael, it was self-defence. If Lilly hadn't told the rest of the prisoners to wait outside when we headed into the office, we'd probably all be dead right now."

My brain's starting to hurt… Was that really just self-defence on our part? It sure as hell didn't feel like it, and Mikael made it quite clear that we were in the wrong.

But what if it was all an act?

It kind of makes sense, if you think about it. Mikael and the rest of the camp wanted their freedom, and they knew what we were capable of doing. So once they realize that we're a bunch of survivors, they go along with the "revolution" and help us to kill all the guards. Mikael waits for the right opportunity, and knew that Jane would want to inflict as much pain on Sandro as he did to her. So he frames it all as cold-blooded revenge, and then starts claiming that we didn't want to help them in the first place.

That son of a bitch…

"Dominic wasn't like that…" I tell them while shaking my head. "No way was he in on this – the guy could barely understand what I said half the time, and he was loyal to the core. He wouldn't deceive us."

"You're right," Lilly shrugs with a softened glance. "But he was the only one that we knew of. That's why we sent him with you when you guys escaped the community centre."

"Because Mikael would've…" I clue in, finally putting the pieces together as the two of them reluctantly nod their heads. "I'm… sorry, guys. All along, you knew what he was gonna do…"

"You don't need to worry about him anymore, Clem. He's gone, and so is Sandro," Jane comments, glad to see that I'm finally speaking to them again. This is the good thing about having a smaller group – the problems are much easier to talk about. "We should've warned you earlier, but… It doesn't matter now. Let's just focus on getting back to Houston Hills."

"I guess we won't have to look very far," Lilly remarks, seemingly surprised as she notices another torn sign for the place. She rips the paper from the telephone pole, scrunches it up and chucks it into the wind as it picks up speed and scatters through the desert.

We wouldn't want any enemies to come looking for our place once we take it from them now, would we?

…..

"Now I remember why they told me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Jane complains in a joking manner, walking with less enthusiasm than I used to see her with when we were at Howe's together. You know, as scary as that place could be at times when Carver was still around, I still miss it sometimes – not Carver, the actual building itself. We had walls to keep us safe, but you'd never get bored because there was always something that needed to be done. Not to mention that Jane and I hardly ever fought there, and with AJ to take care of I was pretty content.

Now it's all gone, and this feels like Deja-vu. Going to take back another place so that we can hold up and live in temporary peace.

Only this time, things are gonna be different – we'll make this work.

"I'm sure we'll find something to eat once we get in there," I share some hope, though it does little to quench our thirsts or satisfy our hungers. At least it's better than being so depressed all the time, and I'm sure deep down Jane appreciates that I still haven't given up on her. After everything that's happened, it'd be pretty easy to do so. "But yeah… some eggs and bacon would go a long way right now."

"Stop, now you're making me hungry!" Lilly whines, closing her eyes to just imagine that she's got a plate of that stuff in front of her. "Jesus… you don't realize how much you miss food until it's gone."

"Omelettes – my best friend through college," Jane remarks with a smirk, but her gaze grows serious as we finally make our way back. Houston Hills… this place used to be nothing but an illusion, and the infuriating part was that we were so close to a safe haven.

But Papa John took that away from us…

"Look there," Lilly whispers, pointing to various windows up on the second level. "There are only a handful of guards from what I can see, but there might be more of them inside."

"Should we just shoot them, then?" Jane suggests, aiming her rifle up and looking through the notch. "It'd be so easy to pick both of them off right now…"

"Yeah sure, if you want to bring them all down on top of us!" Lilly hisses, lowering the barrel of Jane's gun as she scratches her chin in thought. "There's gotta be an easier way… a _safer _way. We need to get a distraction."

When the both of them turn towards me, I gulp but reluctantly sigh in acceptance. There's no way that I'm getting out of this – I've accepted that fact many times over.

There's a rather large moving van in front of the house that definitely wasn't there before, but Jane seems to recognize it as she points to it angrily.

"That's the van they put us in when they took us to Mexico!" she exclaims quietly. "Fucking Corvo's gotta be in there!"

"And if he's inside the house, then Papa John must be as well. This is our chance…" Lilly remarks, patting me on the shoulder as she lays down the plan. "Clem, I need you to sneak into the truck, alright? The keys are still inside, I can see them through the window."

Sure enough, there's a set of car keys sitting haphazardly in the ignition slot for the truck – just ripe for the taking.

"What do I do after?"

"…I need you to turn on the car, drive out into the road and make as much noise as possible. Honk the horn, press the panic button, blast the radio, anything to get their attention. We want all of them to come chasing after you."

"Are you insane?!" Jane insinuates as my face starts to pale in nervousness. "Do you want to get her killed or something?! I thought we wanted to do this quietly!"

"Think about it," Lilly remarks, poking her head up to make sure that nobody's taken off in it yet. "If we try to sneak inside, not only do we have a better chance of getting killed, but we'll end up shooting up the place and ruining our safe zone. Clem can do this – I believe in her."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing right now!" Jane complains, grabbing her hair and looking as though she's about to rip it right out. Groaning, she looks towards me with a worried glance as she bends down to my height. "Clem, this plan is stupid… Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Since when are our plans _not _stupid?" I joke, chuckling nervously as I bite my lip in pensiveness. "If it means that we'll be safe, then… yeah. I'm ready."

Gripping my poncho tightly, Jane does the unexpected and pulls me in close for a hug as the time for action draws nearer.

"If anything goes wrong – ANYTHING – you book it out of there, alright? Don't worry about Lilly and I, just go."

"You know that's not how I roll," I comment, smirking as she releases me. I give a nod towards Lilly, who seems pretty nervous about this whole thing as well. This plan is practically suicide, and the chances of failure are very high, but with our luck I think we'll do alright.

I just hope that Lilly and Jane both know what to do once I start the distraction.

"Alright, go – hurry before someone sees you!" Lilly urges as I sneak my way down the hill. I'm a fair distance away from the house, so this is going to be a bit of a stretch. I slide through the grass like a snake as I keep a close eye on the second level. I almost forgot how they hardly ever needed to have someone on watch, since they don't really get very many walker problems around these parts.

That's their first mistake. The second one was leaving the keys in the truck.

When one of the officers glance outside, I quickly drop to all fours and stay to the ground as low as possible; not moving a muscle as my breath hitches in my throat. If somebody spots me, then it's game over.

Glancing my eyes upwards without moving, I see that the bastard Corvo is indeed present in the house – no doubt pulling a curtain over Papa John's eyes as to what happened with Sandro and the prison. Not only is he liar, but he's also untrustworthy, disloyal and a trigger-happy prick, and I'm pretty sure that Lilly's going to love killing him once and for all.

The grass tickles my nose as I breathe inwards, but quickly stand up after seeing that they've disappeared. I don't think that any of them saw me, otherwise they probably would've shot me dead from the window once they realized who I am. The stones of the unpaved driveway crash against my shoes as I tiptoe the rest of the way; hiding behind the door of the truck and sighing in relief. So far so good, as I give Lilly and Jane a thumbs up which they return. Holding up their guns to let me know that they're going to set up, I nod and watch as the two disappear from my sight.

The sun's starting to go down, revealing a darker shade of pink and red that dots the landscape – the colour of blood, as it will be spilled this evening for certain. Grabbing the door handle of the truck, I carefully open it and step inside before shutting it firmly closed again.

…..

It's a pretty good thing that I'm so small, isn't it? The only thing that anybody would really be able to see from the outside is my hat bobbing up and down; slightly burned now unfortunately after that whole prison situation. Why did I ever feel that getting rid of this was a good idea?

Anyways, there's not much too this truck really. It's a pretty old piece of junk that smells like cigarettes, and the stickiness in the cup holders makes me think that somebody spilled some soda in here. Didn't their parents ever tell them to clean up after themselves? Geez, what a bunch of slobs!

Looking out the window to make sure that nobody's watching yet, I hesitantly turn the keys until I hear the engine roar to life and everything start to shake within the vehicle. Gripping the steering wheel tightly with both of my hands, I put my foot on the gas pedal and slowly move forward; trying to avoid the tree that they've inconveniently planted nearby.

One of the guards point down to the truck from the window, and they quickly disappear back into the house.

"Showtime…" I mutter as I honk the horn excessively and crank the CD player as high as it can go, hurting my ears in the process as the bullets start flying at the back of the truck. Realizing that they've come out to play with little, old Clementine, I put the pedal to the metal and floor it down the dirt road; kicking up dust as two bullets break my left side mirror. It's as if they're trying to kill me or something!

"How far do I go, how far do I go?!" I ask myself over and over, not wanting to stop and get caught but also not wanting them to turn back around to get Lilly and Jane killed. I drive for another thirty seconds or so before gritting my teeth together and trusting my gut. This has gotta be far enough, so I start to turn back around… without using the brakes.

I travel left off the dirt road as the bumps underneath the wheels grow increasingly violent, causing me to go up and down like a ragdoll as I try to prevent the car from flipping over. My stomach turns to knots when I get some air in this huge transport truck, but I settle again once the thing lands. There are a shit-load of dents in this thing, but that's alright.

I need to run people over with it anyways.

"WRAGHHHH!" I scream out like a crazy person, lowering my head as I turn back onto the road and run several guard patrols over. One of them go flying through my windshield, smashing the glass as it cuts into his skin. He shrieks as the blood pours down his face, so I take out a pistol and shoot him to save the man from more suffering. I'm not that cold, guys.

More bullets fly my way, and I try my best to avoid them, but one of the gunshots crash through the window on my left side and causes a shower of glass to crash down onto me. Several cuts form on my face, and I scream in pain as one of the shards cut open the burned part of my head – this hurts like you won't believe. My left eye is blinded by the blood that's flowing down from the upper part of my head, and I clutch the wound painfully while letting go of the steering wheel. There's so much going on right now that my brain's having trouble processing everything.

But now I'm no longer in control of where the car's going.

"_CLEMENTINE! STOOOPPPP!" _either Jane or Lilly call out, but it's too late. The truck smashes into the same tree that I had tried avoiding earlier, and I go smashing through the window pane to the ground below; hearing a sickening snap of bone as I roll over. That's why you wear your seatbelt, kids!

But seriously, somebody just needs to shoot me… That'd probably be a lot more merciful than what I'm currently experiencing at the moment.

"Oh… godddddd…" I whimper, tears flowing freely as I'm forced to sit there and listen as the gunfire continues to go off. I've completely destroyed the truck, with the front hood bent inwards so far that it looks like it tried to fold itself up. The windshield is no longer there, as I can still see glass littering the hood and the ground below it, and lastly I can hear steam coming out as the truck sizzles and pops. Whatever I did, it wasn't pretty.

Using the only eye that I can see out of right now, I painfully turn my head back to see that Lilly's rushing over towards me; Jane covering her as she makes her descent down the hill.

"JUST! FUCKING! DIE!" Jane swears as she unleashes an utter fury on her enemies, seeming to hate the living assholes more than the dead ones at this point. I can't help but agree.

"Oh my god! Clem! CLEM!" Lilly yells, coming over to me as she cradles my head in her lap. I try telling her to get out of here since it's so dangerous, but she won't listen to me. "Damn it, I'm so sorry! I never should've told you to do something like this… Shit! FUCK! You're gonna make it, I swear to Christ!"

"Get… out of here!" I manage to say, though still sounding as though my mouth is full of marbles. I taste blood in my mouth as my eyes slowly start to close. This could very well be the end for me…

"Clem, god damn it! Stay with me! JANE! HELP ME OUT OVER – ARRGGHHH! SHIT! I'M HIT! GOD DAMN IT, I'M – "

_No… _is my last thought before I see that fucker Papa John standing over me with a wicked smirk as he pulls out his pistol – aiming it dangerously close to my head.

"You folks shoulda stayed in prison…" he snarls, unlocking his pistol and shaking it in his grip. His jacket is definitely bloody, so somebody managed to shoot the bastard at least.

Perhaps it was Jane… I hope so. Hopefully she and Lilly will be able to walk away from this… to move on… from me…

My eyes close, and a gunshot goes off that pounds my eardrums.


	21. We will survive

"_Urgh… this fucking kills!"_

"_Just keep some pressure on it! Don't lift your hand off!"_

"_Yeah, easy for you to say! You're not the one who's been shot!"_

"_Would you just quit whining and keep still?! You need to keep from bleeding out!"_

"…_where's Clem? Is she…"_

"_I don't know… There's a shit-ton of blood around here…"_

"_Jesus…"_

"_Fuck, we need to get her inside! There's no way she'll survive like this!"_

"_Go… I'm right behind you."_

"_You can barely fucking move, Lilly! Just stay there, I'll come back… Shit! They're turning!"_

"_I'll cover you… just get her inside…"_

"_I'm not leaving you alone, Lilly!"_

"…_why not?"_

…

The first thing that I see is a blinding light – a bright, annoying glare that creeps in through the slits of my eyelids as my senses tell me that I'm still very much alive. My vision is foggy, but I'm sure that it'll start to clear up any second now.

Ahh, there we go.

I'm lying on some kind of bed, that's for certain, as my head's sitting on a pillow and I'm looking straight up at the ceiling. A ceiling fan hangs there motionlessly as the blue-coloured walls slowly start to creep into my line of vision.

"Where… am I?" I ask to nobody in particular, finding it very difficult to remain focused on anything for a long period of time. I feel pain, but it's numbed down a little bit, as if my body's slowly starting to put itself back together. But that still doesn't answer my question – where am I, and what happened to me?

"Hey, kiddo," a voice suddenly startles me, but I regain my composure and smile when I realize that Jane's been sitting beside me in a chair the entire time. "I hate to ask this, but how are you feeling?"

"Crappy," I reply simply, causing Jane to chuckle slightly. All seems peaceful around here, at least for now. "Where are we, Jane?"

"Houston Hills – we never left, Clem."

"Does that mean…?"

Jane nods, but she seems a little bit sad as she does so. If we won, and we're sitting in this place without any worries about the outside, then what could be the matter? Why does Jane look as though somebody kicked her puppy or something?

"Are you okay?" I ask, breaking her out of her mood as she tries her best to cover it up with a half-hearted smile. "Jane, come on, you can tell me. What's the matter?"

She points her head to the lower half of my body, as I turn to see what it is she's referring to. Confused, I slowly lift up the blanket that covers me…

After about a minute or so, and realizing what this means, I slowly burst into tears. Jane hops on the side of the bed as I collapse into her arms, but no amount of comfort is going to help in this situation.

And as Lilly walks in through the door, she can't help but rub her eyes to prevent any tears from coming out. This is a tough day for all three of us.

…..

_Nobody's POV_

"_Clem! Oh my god, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Jane panics, sending off an array of death from her machine gun as guard after guard fall to their deaths. That truck's providing good cover from their attacks, but Clementine won't be safe for long. Lilly's sprinted down the hill to her side, and as soon as Jane sees Corvo her blood starts to boil. "JUST! FUCKING! DIE!"_

_Corvo collapses in agony as he desperately tries to crawl to safety; having just gotten his legs completely crushed by the truck as Clem had run him over. In a last ditch effort, however, as Jane tries reloading her weapon, Corvo notices that Lilly's hunched over the ruined form of Clementine; providing just the opening he needs. He holds the pistol up shakily as he tries to get his aim right._

"_Fucking… pricks…" he spits out blood, closing one eye and taking aim._

"_Get… out of here!" Clem garbles as Lilly looks on in shock; not knowing where to even start with the young girl. There's glass sticking out of various points in her face, her hands are torn to bits and her legs… Jesus…_

"_Clem, god damn it! Stay with me!" she yells, unwilling to let this wonderful young child die like all the rest of the people that she's been with. "JANE! HELP ME OUT OVER – ARGGGHHHH! SHIT! I'M HIT! GOD DAMN IT, I'M – "_

_Jane quickly shoots Corvo in the neck after the barrel of his weapon goes off, but has to reload again as Lilly collapses from a shot in the side. She's on the ground and seemingly incapacitated, and the third bastard has shown back up after Jane thought for sure that she'd killed him. The bullet went right through the chest! How is he not dead yet?!_

"_Fuck! NO!" Jane bellows as time seems to go to a standstill, and Jane watches helplessly as Papa John brandishes the barrel of his weapon and sticks it right between Clem's eyes. This is it – she let Clementine down, and now she'd have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life, however long she's got left. She's completely helpless and powerless to do anything._

_But Lilly's still got her gun as well._

_Papa John turns his head at just the same moment, but Lilly's already put a bullet right through his eye as it goes out his skull; killing the man instantly as the fighting finally comes to a halt._

_Once Jane has caught her breath, she immediately rushes down the hill in order to come to the aid of her friends. They'll need it…_

…_.._

"_I'm not leaving you, Lilly!"_

"…_why not?" she asks as Jane empties her last remaining bullets into the heads of some walkers. No matter how safe this place might be, it's still able to fall, just like any other place they might go to. Jane realizes that now._

"_Friends stick together," she dramatizes, rolling the words off her tongue in a cheesy manner as Lilly chuckles bitterly. "I'm out! Drag your ass inside, or just hold on! I'll come back for you!"_

_Not waiting to hear an answer, Jane quickly scoops up the broken heap of Clementine and places her on the hardwood floor as gently as she can._

"_Just hang on, Clem…" she mutters, but gasping as Lilly manages to take down a walker right before it takes a bite out of her arm. Nodding, Jane rushes back outside to help the other woman into the house, not needing to rush as quickly since all of the walkers are dead._

_What they really need to rush for is Clementine._

"_Turn her over… lemme see," Lilly instructs as Jane does as she's asked. The both of them cringe as they look upon her grotesque form; not even close to the sweet little survivor they had grown accustomed to earlier. "Fuck… We need to get the glass out of her face…"_

"_You need to go take care of yourself."_

"_My life's not as important as Clem's, Jane…"_

"_It won't matter whose life's more important if you're dead!" Jane barks, watching as the blood turns her white shirt into a dark crimson. "Go find something to wash that with – you're bleeding onto the floor."_

_Biting her lip, Lilly turns tail and sighs as she reluctantly walks into the kitchen; on the hunt for some medical supplies or anything resembling it. Honestly, at this point she'd probably tie some fucking paper towels around her waist if she had to!_

_Jane, on the other hand, is busy working on Clem's face. The young girl is completely passed out, which is either a good thing since she won't feel any of this, or a bad thing because… well, you know why._

"_Nice and easy…" Jane says to herself, though this is anything but as she carefully grasps a large chunk of glass from the kid's forehead. With a sickening splotchy sound, Jane groans as she carefully pulls the thing out of the girl's head; the sharp glass now stained with the child's blood as it rolls down her face._

_Clementine's face is caked in blood – it's almost as if the pour kid flipped her skin inside out, it's so disgusting. This probably won't ever properly heal, and she's definitely going to have scars on her face for the rest of her life… if she makes it through this. Thankfully, Jane seems to believe that there's a chance, so she doesn't give up as she pulls out a smaller piece near her left cheek._

"_How's she doing?" Lilly asks, still holding her side even though she just wrapped it with whatever she could scrape together. Antiseptic will have to wait until later. "Don't you tell me she's dead, Jane."_

"_What the fuck are we gonna do…?" Jane asks in disbelief, gesturing to Clem's mangled legs. Parts of them aren't facing the right way, and there are several broken bones that lead all the way down to her feet. In complete stress, Jane rubs her hands through her hair and shakes her head, unable to believe what this could mean. "Lilly… she might not – "_

"_She will," Lilly interjects, holding herself up against the wall as she edges her way closer to the two of them. "She has to… It's fucking Clementine, for god's sake! She'll pull through!"_

"_And when she wakes up? What then?" Jane questions, lifting the girl up and walking towards one of the bedrooms on the ground floor. "How the hell are we supposed to deal with this, huh? You think Clem wants to live as a cripple?! The kid's already been through enough shit! What's gonna happen when she wakes up and…"_

"_We'll deal with it, just like everything else. She has to survive, Jane, no matter what condition she's in. I owe her that much after everything that's happened…"_

_Taking one last look at the young girl before gently setting her down on the bed, Jane nods and orders Lilly to come make herself useful by the bedside. This is gonna take some work._

…_.._

Paralyzed… at least for now. That was my immediate reaction when I lifted the blanket up, but now I'm wishing that I hadn't. I could've been safe and in the dark on my _condition_; completely oblivious and unaware that I can't move at all. I'm going to be stuck in a chair or a bed for… well, maybe forever depending on how things go. This is bullshit.

My eyes are red and puffy from crying so much, but the mirror paints a much more gruesome story than just teary eyes. I'm all bandaged up on my face, and there are cuts literally _everywhere_. I couldn't look more beaten up and battered if I tried to. Jane tells me that it'll be at least a week before I can even think about taking the bandages off for long periods of time, but it's not as if she really knows anything about this sort of stuff. Jane's no doctor by any stretch of the imagination.

Frowning sorely, I sigh and place my trademark ball cap with the letter _D _on it back upon my head. Hell, even my hat looks as though it's been through hell, and that's the nicest-looking thing about me now.

"I'm gonna be a freak for the rest of my life…" I comment, noticing as Lilly walks up behind me, studying my reflection in the mirror as I sit in a moveable office chair.

"I think it makes you look more like a bad ass," she opinionates, even though deep down we both know the truth – I'll never look like my old self again. No amount of haircuts are going to change anything, and I'm certainly not the same person that I was before. "You know, they say that looking at a mirror for too long will cause you to go crazy."

"Maybe I already am," I retort, sighing as I twirl in the office chair and wait patiently as Lilly gets set up behind me. "Mush, mush…"

"This isn't a dog sled you're on, Clem… though that'd be pretty freaking awesome."

"Yeah, sure…" I mumble without much emotion, glancing at the floor as Lilly brings me back into the bedroom. Apparently I need as much rest as humanly possible before I can wander about the house – Dr. Jane's orders.

Lilly carefully lifts me up and back down onto the bed, but wincing as she accidentally bangs her wound again.

"Damn it, that smarts…" she hisses, but shaking it off as she notices that I'm staring again. "Don't worry about it, Clem. Nothing we haven't dealt with before, right? Back in that church and everything…"

"Have you just wanted to die this whole time?"

My question obviously throws her off guard at first, but I keep my expression neutral as I patiently wait for an answer from her. It's blunt, for sure, but we don't beat around the bush with the three of us; not anymore. There's no room for that considering that every single day could very well be your last.

Sighing, she bends forward in the chair and folds her hands together while looking at the bed sheets surrounding me. This is gonna be tough to answer I'm betting.

"Sometimes I have, yeah. Depends… depends on the circumstances," she explains quietly, a sort of reservation about her as she describes what she's been going through. "Sometimes I just… lose myself, you know? And it's hard to pick up the pieces after you've lost… well, pretty much everything."

"I know."

"Yeah, yeah I guess you would," she concedes, nodding her head sadly. "I spent a whole lot of nights after taking that RV just wondering what the point was anymore. I was completely alone, having destroyed the last couple of friendships that I had left in this world. And with all of that Carley shit running through my head… one night I grabbed a pistol from the glove compartment, raised it up to my forehead… but I couldn't force myself to pull the trigger. It would've been a slap in the face for my dad if I just took the easy way out – he raised me not to be a quitter and all of that typical fatherly bullshit. So when I met up with you and Jane back at Howe's, I figured that maybe I'd have a chance. If I ever got into a life or death situation, I'd make sure that you two weren't the ones to go. The person to die would have to be the one that deserved it the most."

"Lilly…"

"Nothing was simple anymore; not like it used to be," she continues, glaring at the floor as she clenches a fist. "Not like it was before… fucking Kenny…"

I take some time to let her vent a little bit more, as it's obvious that this has been bottling up for quite some time. We've all been there; all had the worst possible things happen to us that we can't control. That's why it's so much easier to relate.

Nothing compares to the heartache, the grief of losing someone you love… It's one of the worst feelings in the world.

"What do you think would've happened… if I had shot Kenny instead of Carley that day?" she asks, slightly curious but not as bitter as I thought she would've been about it. "Do you think… things would've been different?"

I shuffle upwards a bit to get in a better position on the bed. How the hell do you answer that question? I mean, she knows that I had to shoot Kenny in the chest; to end the brittle relationship that we may (or may not) have had after he lost everything. Would it seem more justifiable in that instance?

Sadly, I doubt it.

"Katjaa wouldn't have let you back on the RV," I shake my head, doubt swirling in my mind as I think back to that fateful day. "Lee probably would've allowed it, but then she'd probably get super mad, and then the whole thing would fall apart. But… Kenny was the same way as you, I think. He didn't want to be here anymore either."

"That's not what I'm saying, Clem. It's just… fuck, I felt low, alright? Like the entire world was out to get me, and that nothing I did was going to make it better. Believe me, I tried."

There she goes again – overanalyzing things. Why is it that whenever problems come up, adults always make it worse than it needs to be? They can't ever just find a solution that works for them, instead just dragging it out and beating themselves up over the smallest of details.

Then again, like Lilly just stated, things aren't so simple anymore.

Sometimes I wonder if I had made the right choices – choosing Jane over Kenny, letting Lilly come into the hardware store, and inadvertently causing tension among the group members. I keep asking myself what Lee would've done, but then I realized something important – we're two different people. He wouldn't want me to do the same stuff that he did. Lee would want me to live my own life; make my own choices and live with the consequences.

And when Kenny started asking me what Lee would've done back in the truck, I knew that it wouldn't make a difference. The man left a mark on everyone he came into contact with, for sure, but that's it. He's gone, and I shouldn't drag myself down because of that fact. It's a different world now – the decisions that Lee had made won't apply now. I need to figure things out for myself.

"I'm glad that you came back," I murmur, closing my eyes as I prepare to drag myself back to a peaceful slumber.

She thinks that I can't see her, but I can tell what's going on. Lilly smiles fondly at the little friend that she found again after so long, and brushes her hand tenderly over my cheek. It's so unnatural coming from her, but it only makes it that more special; that more significant and meaningful.

Because when Lilly smiles at you, you bet your ass that she means every one of them.

"Me too."

….

"Are you sure about this?" I ask uncertainly, glancing down at the wheelchair with suspicion and doubt. "I mean, won't it be even harder to get around in this thing?"

"Hey, I didn't search through the whole attic and the basement just for you not to try it out at least once," Jane jokes, a smirk playing upon her lips as she helps me to sit myself down. I have to physically pull my legs onto the pedals of the chair before finally getting settled. "See? This'll be way easier to use than an office chair, Clem."

"I haven't even moved in it yet," I point out, before sniffing the air and scrunching up my face in slight disgust. "And… why does it smell like piss?"

"Well, apparently this used to be a senior center here."

"Jane! That's disgusting!" I gag, suddenly wanting to walk again about ten times more than I already had. "Isn't there anything else?"

"The smell should die out soon enough, Clementine. Don't worry," she brushes off, trying her best not to laugh at this. When I stubbornly put on my best annoyed face and fold my arms over my chest, she can't help but snort. "Sorry… Anyways, try pushing the wheels forward and backwards. You're gonna gain some wicked upper body strength with this thing."

"If you say so…" I mumble, doing as instructed and trying my best to move the wheels around, but with limited success. Why does this seem so much easier to do in the movies? With the limited strength in my arms that I actually have, I struggle to move the chair down the hallway, but somehow I manage.

However, once I get to the end of the hall, I run into a little bit of a snag.

"Uh, Jane?" I call out, unable to turn around to face her. "I'm stuck over here!"

"How? You've only been doing this for like five seconds!"

"Just get over here!" I huff, feeling embarrassed enough as it is without having Jane make a mockery of it further. When I feel her grasp the handles at the back of the wheelchair tightly before turning me back towards the kitchen area, I sigh in discontent. This sucks – why couldn't I have just put my damn seatbelt on? That was rule one of driving, according to Jane! How could I have been so careless?!

"Bring her in here," Lilly calls from the kitchen, which slightly piques my interest. "I figure we might as well do something fun for a change."

"Lilly and fun… Never thought I'd live to see the day," Jane jokes, getting a grunt from the older woman as she rolls me into the kitchen. Set up on the table is a small box with some question cards inside of it. As Jane sets me up against the table, I pull out some of the cards and start to read… sort of.

"Password? What is this, some kind of game?" I ask, glancing at the cardboard box to try and make heads or tails of what we're supposed to do.

"We've only got three people, so it might be a bit challenging," Lilly shrugs, sliding a plate of vegetables down Jane's way as she puts it on the table – the _prison's vegetables. _Really? We couldn't find anything else? "One person knows the password, and has to try and get their partner to guess what it is. You can only say one word as a hint for your partner."

"You couldn't have found _anything _else? I don't know, a deck of cards or something?"

"What's the matter, Jane?" I smirk coyly, "Don't think you can handle it?"

Scoffing, Jane sticks her tongue out at me before ruffling my hat around a little bit.

"I'll have you know that I am the queen of these kinds of games," she proclaims proudly, taking a seat beside me as Lilly sits across from us. "Queen Jane… huh, that's got a pretty nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Yeah, maybe for an egotistical maniac," Lilly rolls her eyes, the usual hostility between the two of them having slowly started to dissipate over the time that we've been with each other. I'm proud of this accomplishment – after all of the fights, the violence and the threats, we've come out on the other side. Not without consequences of course, but we've made it.

All three of us are safe, at least for now. _We can make this work, _is the line that Jane would usually feed me with whenever we thought that Howe's was too big of a job for us to handle.

But this right here… Houston Hills… _this _is our best shot at a home. It'd be nice to just not have to keep running away and moving from place to place all the time. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but other than the obvious threat of Corvo and the rest of them (who are now taken care of, according to Lilly and Jane) we haven't actually had any problems here. Lilly found a whole stash of supplies that are kept cold in the cellar on the far side of the basement, and even though we're going to need to start doing runs again eventually, for now it's nice to know that we're relatively in the clear for a change.

"Alright, wise guy, you're up first," Jane tells me as she looks down at the card. Once she thinks it over a little bit, she tries her best to give me a hint. "Cold."

"Umm… water?" I guess to which she shakes her head and turns to Lilly.

"Cube."

"Ice!" Lilly says swiftly, causing me to chuckle at her enthusiasm. It's nice to see all three of us enjoying ourselves for a change… sober as well.

The game continues on this way for about an hour or so until we start to get bored, having exhausted many of the cards and eaten half the plate of vegetables already. Lilly kicked both of our asses, but I actually racked up more points than Jane did. So much for "Queen Jane"!

Joking and laughing and reminiscing about the good ol' days… I never thought that we'd get to experience this stuff again. Sure, a drunken night at Howe's may have provided some of that stuff, but this is different. Nobody's threatening to kick each other out of the group, or trying to toss somebody out of the group in a drunken rage. This is just us enjoying the limited amount of time that we can in each other's company; most of our past grievances with each other forgotten.

Lilly isn't trying to run off with our supplies or kill us in our sleep. She'd rather throw herself in harm's way than allow anything to harm one of her friends. I don't need to ask how I know if I can trust her any longer – I just do.

Jane's not trying to convince me to take off in a truck through a winter storm, or have me turn anymore folks away when they desperately need our help. She's smart, resourceful and is gonna stick by us until the bitter end. It's what she promised me after we got back to Howe's, and I can hold her to that.

This is my family now, all three of us – troubled, often dysfunctional and quite dangerous when we need to be, but we're family. I thought that we had died inside after AJ was taken from us, that whatever bridge was holding us together had been blown up and shattered into a billion tiny pieces. But we've overcome this obstacle, and others like it, despite how terrifying this world might seem.

We're survivors, and we're going to stay that way until we die.

"Did you hear that?" Lilly asks suddenly, her brow furrowed as she pulls her chair out and grabs her rifle off the kitchen counter. "Something's outside – we need to go check it out."

"I'm coming with you," I inform her, hearing no argument as Jane rolls me back out into the hall. Lilly swiftly opens the front door and peers outside, glowering as a family of four stop their truck and slowly make their way towards the front steps.

"That's far enough!" Lilly hollers, holding her weapon in front of her but not aiming it directly at them – yet. So far, from what I can tell at least, these people don't seem to be too dangerous. But you have to be dangerous in order to survive out here these days. That's just the way that the world works.

There's two grown men with a daughter who looks a little bit younger than I am, and for a split second I can see myself within this girl. Small, scared of everything that moves, and wanting nothing more than to just find somewhere that's safe enough for them to stay in. They explain themselves, saying how they've been on the road for days and are running low on supplies, how they just need a place to stay for a couple of days at the most – you know, the usual pitch from families like these.

Then I think back on that family of three that I turned away so long ago now… Randy, Patricia, Gil… and what my thoughts were when Lilly and I came across them when coming back from that town. How guilty I had felt for inadvertently causing their deaths, and wishing that maybe I could've given them a chance. I was a different person then, and that was a different time. Jane and I were desperate, having just come off of some very traumatizing weeks.

And lastly, I think about how I allowed Lilly back into my life.

"_How do I know that I can trust you?"_

"_You don't."_

Glancing at the family of three, I nod towards Jane and Lilly, who reluctantly back off. I'm not going to make the same mistakes again.

"Just a few days – you can put your weapons at the front door," I tell them, watching as their faces brighten in appreciation. "Come on inside."

_AN: And that's all, folks! I've had an awesome time writing this story – Jane and Lilly are ridiculously fun to write for, and have so much untapped potential for the writers at Telltale. If they'll ever decide to bring them back is a mystery, but I'd be over the moon if they did. I think that'd be so cool :) _

_I'd like to thank all of my reviewers for this absolutely amazing journey – you guys rock! Rebloxic, spiderclone, kesrakuch, Full Power, classykazmiller25, a Writer with Mixed Interests, boomboomboomer, VictoriaSW, CarlosTWD, Robot Terminator, Mr. Unknown, emilyrose727, Sven the Crusader, FeedtheMachine23, Bubbles2K100, 101WalkingDead, The Person of Nothing, Flare Hedgehog, ashes2ashes, Rayne Ariana Maranochi, clemenfan, Salient Spring, clemmyclue19, Assassin's Creed Master, clemenTIME, Zero Bullet, maryaa, Lee and Kenny, He Who Destroys All, Lord Skarlet, Sharon Ryght, and all of the guests. You guys have been UNREAL! Thank you so much :) _

_Maybe I'll do something more with these three, since honestly they've become pretty much my favourite characters in the series. It probably won't be for a while, since I don't have any ideas at the moment, but this won't be the end of fanfic writing for me. I'll see you guys around!_

_Leafs Nation_


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